The average daycare closes its doors by 6 p.m. at the latest, but the average worker is putting in a lot of after hours. So where are their kids going?
If they're lucky, to one of the twenty-four hour daycares popping up in recent years. Places like Children's Choice in Dallas have seen spikes in attendance with the economic downturn, even while other daycares around the country are losing customers. Parents are taking on second jobs after the nine-to-five shift or picking up shifts they might not have opted for in the past because a job's a job - no matter the time.
According to the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies, a quarter of the nation's eleven million kids in thirty-six hours of daycare per week are in an arrangement strung together by their parents because they can't find any one place that meets their needs. Quitting a job to stay home - especially in this economy - isn't an option for these parents. In twenty to twenty-five percent of the dual-earning families, the mothers are the primary breadwinners.
What's most interesting is these kids don't have altered schedules like their parents. They eat dinner before heading off to nighttime daycare, they take a bath and get into their jammies. Then they're dropped off at the center. They sleep through the night right in the daycare center while their parents are at work.
Would this work for you? Or would you prefer to have the night with your kids?
Image: My Sweet Dreams Baby
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