Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/who-cares-for-the-children/5014812/
Continuing a trend launched in the 1970s, care arrangements for US children continue to become more and more formalized. Gone are the Ozzie and Harriet days when most mothers stayed home to take care of their 2.5 children. In the 1950s and '60s, the vast majority of preschool children were cared for exclusively by parents and relatives. Today three out of four children are cared for by relatives or in centers for at least part of the day.Care by Parents
Today less than one in four parents are the sole source of care for their preschool children (see Table A). In the 1980s this trend for more parents to reach out for help with childrearing responsibilities was driven primarily by the rise of women with young children in the workforce. In the 1990s, with the growing public awareness of the developmental importance of the early years, increasing numbers of parents also enrolled their children in care outside the home for educational reasons.
In our society, "care by parents," of course, typically means "care by mothers." At the outset of the 1990s there was some evidence that men were becoming more liberated and taking on more responsibility for child care. From 1988 ...