The Cost of Kids

The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 and came up with approximately $300,000 (pre-tax dollars) for a middle income family (U.S. Department of Agriculture's 2011 Annual Report "Expenditures on Children by Families." (PDF) as analyzed by The Wall Street Journal 6/14/2012). Talk about sticker shock! That doesn't even touch college tuition. But $300,000 isn't so bad if you break it down. It translates into $17,647 a year, $1,471 a month, or $368 a week. That's a mere $53 a day! Just over $2.19 an hour (even while they are sleeping).  

Parents who send their children to college can add a significant sum to the total. The report notes estimate by the College Board that in 2011-2012, annual average tuition and fees were $28,500 at 4-year private (non-profit) colleges, while annual room and board was $10,089.  

Still, you might think the best financial advice says don't have children if you want to be "rich." It is just the opposite. 

What do you get for your $300,000? 

·       Naming rights. First, middle, and last!
·       Glimpses of God every day.
·       Giggles under the covers every night.
·       More love than your heart can hold.
·       Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs.
·       Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies.
·       A hand to hold, usually covered with jam.
·       A partner for blowing bubbles, flying kites, building sand castles, and skipping down     the sidewalk in the pouring rain.
·       Someone to laugh yourself silly with no matter what the boss said or how your stocks performed that day.

For $300,000, you never have to grow up.

·       You get to finger-paint, carve pumpkins, play hide-and-seek, catch lightning bugs, and never stop believing in Santa Claus.
·       You have an excuse to keep reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh, watching Saturday morning cartoons, going to Disney movies, and wishing on stars.
·       You get to frame rainbows, hearts, and flowers under refrigerator magnets and collect spray painted noodle wreaths for Christmas, hand prints set in clay for Mother's Day, and cards with backward letters for Father's Day.

For $300,000, there is no greater bang for your buck.

·       You get to be a hero just for retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof, taking the training wheels off the bike, removing a splinter, filling a wading pool, coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and coaching a baseball team that never wins but always gets treated to ice cream regardless.
·       You get a front row seat to history to witness the first step, first word, first bra, first date, and first time behind the wheel.
·       You get to be immortal.
·       You get another branch added to your family tree, and if you're lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called grandchildren or even great-grandchildren.
·       You get an education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice, communications, and human sexuality that no college can match.
·       In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there with God.
·       You have all the power to heal a boo-boo, scare away the monsters under the bed, patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground them forever, and love them without limits, so one day they will, like you, love without counting the cost.

  ENJOY YOUR KIDS AND GRANDKIDS AND GREAT-GRANDKIDS

Check out They Stood ALONE!: 25 Men and Women Who Made A Difference

Current Trends in Child Care of Infants and Toddlers

Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological System

Microsystem – effects that adults and children have on each other – the closest system to the child. – contains the child, the immediate nuclear family, and specialists relating to the child

Mesosystem – includes child care settings – fosters children’s development by encompassing connections between home, school, child care center and neighborhood

Exosystem – Social setting s that do not contain the child, but still directly affect their development – community health and social services and other public agencies – grass roots groups who lob by and advocate for child care services – it includes such issues as parent education and parent workplace

Macrosystem – child is ultimately affected by decisions made at this level – consists of laws, customs, and general policies of the social system (government) – this is where the availability of resources (money) are determined.

Chronosystem- child is affected by world events and natural disasters - this is where the times affect growth and development particularly in the emotional domain

How do these considerations fit within Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological System?

Demographics

            Quantity vs. quality

·       26 % of population is children under 18 down form 36% in 1964 projected 24% in 2020

·       In 2001 61% of children from birth through age 6 (not yet in kindergarten) received some form of child care on a regular basis from persons other than parents

·       In 1997, nearly half of preschoolers (children under age 5) with working mothers were primarily cared for by a relative while their mother worked, while 22% were primarily cared for my non-relatives in a home-based environment and another 22 percent were care for in a center-based arrangement.

·       Children were more likely to engage in some kind of organized before- or after-school activity as they aged.  For example, in 2001, 27% of kindergarten through 3^rd graders and 39% of 4^th-through-8^th graders participated in sports.

·       The birth rate for adolescents continued to decline in 2000 to 27 births per 1000 females ages 15-17, representing the lowest rate ever recorded.  The bulk of the drop in the adolescent birth rate occurred between 1991 and 2000, when it dropped by nearly one-third.

·       In 2001 the percentage of high school graduates ages 25 to 29 who continued their education and received a bachelor’s degree remained at the all-time high of 33%, which was achieved in 2000.  The percentage of black non-Hispanic high school graduates who earned a bachelor’s degree increased for 14% in 1985 to 20% in 2001.

·       Between 1988 and 1993, the number of children in childcare increased nearly 1.5 million to a total of more than 10 million in the fall of 1993.

·       In 1996 the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act was signed into law.  Designed to break the cycle of poverty by moving people from welfare into the workforce.  State governments were given the power to regulate funds and set parameters for child care training.  Allowed people to provide unpaid child care as a way to meet the work requirement.

·       In the State of Texas the regulating body for childcare centers is the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services.  The regulations are contained in the Minimum Standards.  The state of Texas regulations rate 48^th in terms of quality indicators.

·       5.4 million children lived in households headed by a relative other than a parent in 1998.  2.13 million of these children lived with relatives, most often grandparents, with no parent present.

·       In Texas 23.6% of children live in poverty

·       1 in 3 children is born to unmarried parents

·       1 in 2 children will live in a single parent family at some point in childhood

·       1 in 4 children lives with only one parent

            Fees

·       Poverty rate for children living with family members has decreased substantially since 1993 when it reached a high of 22 percent.  In 2000, 16% of children lived in families with incomes below the poverty threshold.  This percentage, also observed in 2999, represents the lowest poverty rate among children since 1979.

·       The decrease in poverty is apparent for children living in female-householder families and is more pronounced for black children.  Among black children in female-householder families, about two-thirds lived below the poverty line from 1980 to 1993, and for the first time since 1980, fewer than half were living in poverty in 2000.

·       The percentage of children who had at least one parent working full time, all year steadily increased from 70% in 1980 to 80 percent in 2000.  In 2000, 91% of children living in two-parent families had at least one parent working full time, all year.  This percentage was lower for children living in single male-headed families and single female-headed families (67% and 50% respectively)

·       Texas has the second largest number of children on the waiting list for child care assistance.41, 240, yet funding has been cut for the third year in a row.

·       In 2001 the percentage of high school graduates ages 25 to 29 who continued their education and received a bachelor’s degree remained at the all-time high of 33%, which was achieved in 2000.  The percentage of black non-Hispanic high school graduates who earned a bachelor’s degree increased for 14% in 1985 to 20% in 2001.

·       The percentage of children whose parents have less than a high school diploma is much higher among children with a foreign-born parent.  In 2001, 42% of foreign-born children with at least one foreign-born parent had a parent with less than a high school diploma, compared with 35% of native children with at least one foreign-born parent and 11% of native children with native parents.

·       In 1996 the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act was signed into law.  Designed to break the cycle of poverty by moving people from welfare into the workforce.  State governments were given the power to regulate funds and set parameters for child care training.  Allowed people to provide unpaid child care as a way to meet the work requirement.

·       The national average compensation for childcare workers is $.15 above minimum wage.

·       Parents primary concerns in selecting a childcare setting are cost and convenience to work or home.

·       Children with special needs

·       Research indicates that high quality early care and education programs are not available to most families – especially low-income families.  Only 10 % of classrooms staff at centers serving predominantly low-income families had a two-year college degree or more, compared to 61% of classroom staff at centers serving moderate- to high-income families.

Programs

            Health

·       In 2000, 0.8% of children lived in households reporting child hunger, down from 1.0% in 1998.  In 2000, 18% of children lived in households reporting any level of food insecurity, down from 20% in 1998.  Children in families below the poverty line were nearly three times more likely to experience food insecurity and hunger than children in families with incomes above the poverty line.

·       According to the Healthy Eating Index, the proportion of children ages 2 to 5 with good diets improved from 21% to 27% between 1996 and 1998, reversing the decline form 1995 and 1996.  Children living in poverty were less likely than higher-income children to have a diet rated as good.  In 1998 for children ages 2 to 5, 22 percent of those living in poverty had a good diet, compared with 29% of those living above the poverty line.

·       Children living in poverty tend to be in poorer health than children living in higher-income families.  Nevertheless, this gap narrowed between 1984 and 2000.  In 1984 62% of children living in poverty and 83% of children living at or above poverty were reported to be in very good or excellent health.  By 2000, 70% of children living in poverty and 85% of children living at or above poverty were in very good or excellent health.

·       While infant mortality rate did not decline in 1998 there was a significant drop in 1999, to 7 deaths per 1,000 live births.

·       Mortality for children ages 5 to 14 declined between 1998 and 1999.  However, there was no significant change in mortality rates for children ages 1 to 4.

·       The number of infants acquiring AIDS during their mother’s pregnancy began to decline sharply by the mid 1990’s mainly because infected pregnant women were treated with ZDV to prevent prenatal transmission of AIDS. Before the availability of this treatment and estimated 1000-2000 infants were born with HIV infection each year.  However, 59% of all pediatric AIDS cases reported to the CDC through June 2000 are among Black children and 23%are among Hispanic population.

·       Significant findings that document a relationship between loss of TANF benefits and children suffering from ill health and inadequate food in there homes have just been published by a group of medical researchers.  Pediatricians and other researchers conducted a six-city study of the impact of TANF sanctions on the health of intents and toddlers (under age 3) and found that children in families that lost benefits because of non-compliance with TANF rules were more likely to have been hospitalized and to go without food compared with families that did not loose benefits.

·       Many local services (Brazos Valley) are losing thousands of dollars to state budget cuts in 2004 and 2005. 

o   Children’s Health Insurance Programs (CHIP) from $25,000 in 2003 to $22,000 in 2004. (-12%)  Dental and mental health coverage are eliminated and waiting period for coverage has been increased to 90 days.  The State is discouraging outreach and enrollment of new members

o   Twin City Mission – Phoebe’s Home – from $224,598 in 2004 to $220,394 in 2005 (-2%)  All funding requires a dollar for dollar match.

o   Brazos Valley Community Action Agency – oversees CCMS that provides child care subsidies - plan is to cut Community Oriented Primary Care program, a medical outlet for the uninsured.-from $340,000 in 2003 to $289,000 in 2004 (-15%)  Major cuts the year before taken from Quality Initiatives (training for child care providers) It is possible that the COPC funding could be cut entirely.

o   MHMR Authority of Brazos County – oversees ECI - from $10,802,781in 2003 to $9,884,138 in 2004 (-8.5%)

o   Family Outreach is being forced to fund it’s own case work manager for the first time in 15 years.  A 100% cut in state monies – 34 agencies statewide have closed or are planning to close their doors.

            Diversity and Cultural differences

·       Racial and ethnic diversity continue to increase.  In 2000 64% of children were white, non-Hispanic, 15% were black non-Hispanic, 4 % were Asian/Pacific Islander, and 1% were American Indian/Alaska Native.  The number of Hispanic children has increased faster than that of any other racial and ethnic group, growing from 9$ of the child population in 1980 to 16% in 2000.

·       The foreign-born population of the United States has increased dramatically over the past few decades.  In 1994, 15% of children living in the U.S. had at least one foreign-born parent; by 2001 this had increased to 19% of children.

·       The percentage of children whose parents have less than a high school diploma is much higher among children with a foreign-born parent.  In 2001, 42% of foreign-born children with at least one foreign-born parent had a parent with less than a high school diploma, compared with 35% of native children with at least one foreign-born parent and 11% of native children with native parents

·       Children with special needs.

·       At about the age of 24 to 36 months children begin to notice differences in skin color and other characteristics that make one person different from another.  Depending on how this is handled at home and in the classroom children learn acceptance or bias.

            Brain research

·       Brain research indicates that the quality of experiences a child has before the age of three has a great impact on their learning.  Critical windows of opportunity occur during these vital years for everything from trust to learning.

            Violence

·       At about the age of 24 to 36 months children begin to notice differences in skin color and other characteristics that make one person different from another.  Depending on how this is handled at home and in the classroom children learn acceptance or bias.

·       In the wake of 9/11/01 and increased violence in schools, there has been an increased emphasis through programs dealing with emotional intelligence.  For example, NAEYC has instituted ACT:  Adults and Children Together, a program designed to help young children deal with conflict, anger and frustration in non-violent constructive ways. 

·       Last year (2002) their were 218 confirmed reports of abuse involving 350 children in Bryan College Station.

           

Professional Development

            Child Care workers

·       Childcare workers have the highest turnover rate of any occupation in the United States, averaging 32%.  This turnover is due to burnout, inconsistency, instability, and decreases the ability of programs to meet children’s individual needs as well as parental needs for support.

·       The use of mentors to encourage new workers has become a creative answer for extending childcare resources.  In 1996 mentor programs existed in 40 communities across the country.  It created a new step in the career ladder by acknowledging the specialized skill of teaching others to care for and educate young children combined with financial reward.

·       In Texas Child Care Management Services has established a Quality Initiatives program that provides free and inexpensive training for child care workers.

·       Nationally, the Child Development Associate program has provided a step on the career ladder emphasizing credentialing providers of child care for young children through strong legislative backing, training efforts and collegiate support.  The program emphasizes higher standards of care and impacts on each child in the community.

·       In 1996 the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act was signed into law.  Designed to break the cycle of poverty by moving people from welfare into the workforce.  State governments were given the power to regulate funds and set parameters for child care training.  Allowed people to provide unpaid child care as a way to meet the work requirement.

·       The national average compensation for childcare workers is $.15 above minimum wage.

·       In the State of Texas the regulating body for childcare centers is the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services.  The regulations are contained in the Minimum Standards.  The state of Texas regulations rate 48^th in terms of quality indicators.  To work in a child care center in the state of Texas one must be 18 years of age, have a high school diploma or the equivalent and have 8 hours of pre-service training.

·       Two of the top indicators of quality of care are the educational level and continuing education practices of child care workers.  The better educated and the more actively and intentionally they pursue continuing education, the better the quality of the early experiences of young children.

·       The average salary of a childcare worker is only $15,430 a year, less than yearly salaries for funeral attendants, bellhops, and garbage collectors.

·       Federal legislation currently being considered will require that half of all Headstart teachers have bachelor degrees by 2008 or 2012.

            Center size and performance

·       A 1997 report indicated that 40% of day care centers for infants and toddlers gave less than the minimal standard of care

·       In the State of Texas the regulating body for childcare centers is the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services.  The regulations are contained in the Minimum Standards.  The state of Texas regulations rate 48^th in terms of quality indicators.

·       Parents primary concerns in selecting a childcare setting are cost and convenience to work or home.

Child abuse    

·       An estimated 2.9 million children were reported as suspected victims of child abuse and neglect and referred for investigation or assessment in 1998; 903,000 of them were confirmed as victims of child maltreatment.

·       Young children are most at risk for being abused and neglected.  They also enter foster care in greater numbers than any other age group and remain in care longer than other children.

·       Child abuse and domestic violence con-occur in an estimated 30 to 60% of the families where there is some form of family violence

America’s Children 2002.  http://www.childstats.gov/ac2002

Children’s Defense Fund.  The State of America’s Children 2001.  Yearbook.

Neugebauer, Roger,  Inside Child Care.  Child Care Information Exchange. 2001

Overview of Historical Theorists Part 5

Magda Gerber - Interactive Theory

• Infants need consistency and a sense of permanence
• Babies and young children need to be in the smallest groups possible
• Infants must be handled with respect and appreciation for who they are and what they want and need
• Observe babies during uninterrupted play and exploration
• Interact during care giving routines (diapering and feeding) Talk! Talk! Talk!
• Basic attitudes and patterns of living, loving, and learning are set in the first two years

Dr. T. Berry Brazelton

• Touchpoints
• A training model for professionals around key points in a young child's development.
• Originally designed for medical professionals based on  years of his professional practice
• The model has since been adopted by a broad variety of people who work with families including early  interventionists, social service 
• The decision to adapt this model for child care was made because Dr. Brazelton recognized that the degree to which child care professionals work with families is different than that of other professionals
• Child care professionals have a more detailed and intimate knowledge of the child.
• They share with the parent many of the child's behaviors and observe the child's development on a day to day basis.
• Touchpoints emphasizes
• prevention through anticipatory guidance
• good relationships between parents and providers.
• In order for a child to obtain optimal development, there has to be a collaboration between the caregiver and the parent(s)
• Touchpoints are predictable periods of disorganization in a child's development that interrupt family relations but can also provide an opportunity for connections
• Developmental Framework
• Development is characterized by regressions, bursts and pauses
• Development is multidimensional
• Bursts in one domain of development cause regression in other domains. These regressions are healthy and necessary for the development of the new skill
• Regressions in a child's behavior creates disorganization for parents

HOW TO DEAL WITH THE DISRESPECTFUL CHILD

This is a time of intense emotional development.

Your child is feeling strong emotions: frustration, anger, rage.

Your child is venting, and has no coping skills beyond verbal expression.

When they were two or three this looked like a temper tantrum, their venting was usually physical.

Be thankful, verbal expression of strong emotion is much more acceptable than outright violence, if they have not moved beyond that in their twos and threes.

Discipline calmly.

And remember your child still has little impulse control, and is feeling out of control.

Try to look at this not as misbehavior, but as mistaken behavior.

Do not let anger, hurt feelings, strong emotions interfere with your ability to be the adult. 

Don’t let your feelings become the focus of the discipline.

Let the child’s words and any hurt feelings of your own flow over you.

Respond, don’t react.

Never engage in a shouting match.

Model calmness and respectful behavior

Separate the content from the rant.       

Try to identify the triggers, or other patterns to the behavior.

Then find ways to help yourself and your child recognize them before they happen.

Acknowledge the child’s emotions. Acknowledge how it makes you feel.

Talk to your child as a child not as a hardened criminal.

 “I see that you are feeling _________ right now about ___________.”                                                                               

Balance love and limits.

“I love you, but I won’t listen to you when you speak to me this way.” 

“You don’t have to agree with me, or even like me right now, but you will be respectful.”

Choose a mantra and use it over and over and over. Encourage every adult who experiences your child’s disrespect to use the same words. Only say it once. Only say it calmly.

Disengage: Turn away, leave the room, stop the car, leave the grocery store.

Get past the outburst.

Let your child know such behavior serves only to end negotiations.

Have conversations about respectfulness when your child is not out of control.

Suggest ways your child can deal with their emotions in positive and respectful ways.

Remind yourself and your child that the reward of respectful behavior is relationship.

Help them find ways to regain control, so they can respond rather than react.

“There is nothing wrong with being angry, everyone feels that way, it’s what you do with your emotions that can make them hurtful and dangerous.”

Do rewinds. “How could you have said the same thing more respectfully?”

“Our family treats people, pets, and possessions with respect.”

Attention to bad behavior increases bad behavior.

In a power struggle, the child will always win.

Positive attention will always have a longer lasting effect on a child’s behavior.

Catch your child being respectful, and let them know it. Enthusiasm counts.

Consequences must be immediate, consistent, and powerful (mean a lot to the child).

Time out should be used only to regain control – there are times, you may need to let your child know that they have made you so angry, or hurt you so badly that you feel out of control and need to put yourself in time out to regain your control.

Biblically, disrespect is the primary root of disobedience.

Adam and Eve did not respect God’s command, Cain and Abel….

Make respect your one non-negotiable standard.

Proverbs 13:13; Deuteronomy 5:16; 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12; Galatians 6:7

Crider, Alice. Focus on the Family Magazine ©2009

Davis, Jorja. BAEd, MSLIS, MEd (ECE) http://nana911.blogspot.com

Kazdin, Alan, M. D., Yale University Parenting Center and Child Conduct Center

Offut, Richard, Psy. D., Practice of Clinical Psychology with Children, Adolescents and Adults. Smyrna GA