"len garden" wrote in message
...
there are a lot of grandparents out there who are more than capable of
looking after their offsprings offsprings.

Yes - but what if a) they are working themselves, b) live too far away, c)
are completely incompetent / untrustworthy as child carers or d) not
remotely interested in taking care of 1 or more children for 9-10 hours a
day, for up to 5 days a week?.

just the gov' would have too many strings attached for it to work, so
we get the pleasuer of filling in the gaps for the gov' for nought
while the gov' subsudises profits into private franchises.

Some grandparents don't see it as a "pleasure" I'm afraid. ...and its a 5
day a week full time job.

Having said that, I'm grateful that Mum looks afer my son 1 day a week while
I go in to the office ... but that suits us both at the moment.


be proactive not reactive.

rearing children is a family matter prinarily and community/society
matter secondary, we seem to be putting all our eggs into the
secondary basket.

Many parents would love to have a parent at home with the children full time
.... but since mortgages have skyrocketed in the last 30 years along with
many other things, many families simply cannot afford this luxury.
Also - since its mostly mothers who do the staying at home bit anyway, we do
tend to have slightly better careers than our forebears and some of us feel
the need to continue with our chosen work as well as have children. Its not
an "all-or-nothing" choice.
Amanda