Broadway Takes on Child Care

01/22/2004

"Wonder is the beginning of wisdom." - Greek Proverb

BROADWAY TAKES ON CHILD CARE

Last week we went to a play at the Seattle Repertory Theatre that addressed the issue of nannies. The play, "Living Out," written by Lisa Loomer and directed by Sharon Ott, addressed, quite well actually, both the guilt mothers face when they place their children in the care of others, and the challenges faced by the nannies in finding care for their own children while they care for the children of others. The playbill (in a story written by Christopher Breyer) even dealt quite seriously with the child care issue, saying in part . . .

"Few matters receive as much earnest attention or are so consistently entangled in controversy as motherhood and childcare. In addition to bitter ideological disputes between and within the Right and the Left, the topics are a source of tension between husbands and wives, employers and employees, and parents and childcare workers, not to mention the subject of anxious inner debates for parents and prospective parents. It would be flattering to believe that all this contention is evidence of our society's profound respect for motherhood and its deep concern for children, but I fear the opposite is more the case: we struggle over childcare because as a culture we disdain it and refuse to sustain it with resources or reward it with prestige. . . . Our society not only does little to aid parents but communicates to them . . . that there are considerably more important uses for their time and talents than caring for children.

"In our economy, mothers not only can work but to a great extent must work, as few families can survive — or at least have an 'acceptable' standard of living — without two incomes. But the uncompromising demands of most jobs make taking care of home and children an imposing challenge for families in which both spouses work. This would be even if husbands were willing to take on an equal share of the domestic responsibilities that, on the whole, they are not. The issue has certainly strained modern marriages, but given the stigma attached to domestic work we shouldn't be surprised that men have been unwilling to compromise their demanding, high-status, well compensated, full-time careers to do no-status house and childcare work. As a result, women, much more than men, have had to find ways to adapt to the dual demands of family and the new high pressure economy. Their dilemma is considerably aggravated by our culture's disregard for the raising of children. After all, if society valued childcare more highly, government and business would be more accommodating to parents and (perhaps) men more willing to take on more domestic responsibility."

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