The following comes from a Nov. 10 story on Pacific Standard.
In the garden of Dee’s Tots Childcare, amid the sunflowers, cornstalks, and plastic cars, a three-year-old girl with beads in her braids and a two-year-old blond boy are shimmying. These are Deloris Hogan’s 6:45 p.m. pick-ups. Nearby, also dancing, are four kids who won’t be picked up until late at night, as well as two “overnight babies,” as Deloris calls them. Dee’s Tots stays open 24 hours a day, seven days a week; the children’s parents work unconventional hours, producing an unexpected cycle of drop-offs and reunions. One afternoon in August, the kids bounce on the center’s inflatable castles, rustle around at the sand tables, and eat a watermelon snack. Then it gets dark.
By 8:30 p.m., three-year-old Naima is in her pink polka-dot pajamas. Little Ivette and her watchful older sister, Diana, lie down on thin mattresses laid over yoga mats. Even with the lights dimmed, you can make out the bright posters on the wall, the costumes and the boxes of dolls and baby clothes, and the fluttering rainbow curtain dividing one of the rooms from the other. Aladdin is playing in the background; the Genie riffs. Deloris changes two-year-old Kaden’s diaper; next, she’ll give one-year-old Noah a bath. Watching the bedtime endgame at what might be called “extreme daycare” can be fretful. I fear that even efficient, poised Deloris won’t be able to wash all the kids in time for bed, and that I’ll have to keep myself from herding her wards to the bathroom and to their pallets. What if the children turn into tear-stained goblins of exhaustion before Deloris gets them tucked in? How will she manage it?
The main room at Dee’s Tots looks like a supersized slumber party, but the truth is this is an ordinary day. Dee’s is only one of a number of 24-hour child care centers around the country. Just on this single block in New Rochelle, New York, there’s another facility, Little Blessings, that offers overnights as well. Little Blessings and Dee’s are in a nearly comic decoration-off, competing for kids with colored lights, giant Doras, and Spider-Men. Some round-the-clock centers play more toward parents, with aspirational names like Success Kidz 24 Hour Enrichment Center.
The growth of this industry makes sense: We now have an expanded workweek, often composed of unpredictable hours. Nearly 40 percent of Americans have non-standard work lives. (The average American adult also now works one and a quarter jobs.) Working people who live below the poverty line are particularly afraid to say no to these unusual schedules. They may have no one to say no to, anyway—those schedules might have been created by computers, rather than human managers, in the hopes of saving a corporation money. Many companies now use data and algorithms to schedule employees so fewer hours will be spent sitting around. The software doesn’t care if a shift falls in the middle of the night, or that it might tear a big hole in an employee’s family life….
To read the entire story, click here.
OBAMA should be blamed for many of these unconventional work hours.
His expensive OBAMACARE has forced businesses to cut hours to stay in business. Without these businesses, there would be no jobs at all.
Thus parents have to work two jobs to get a 40 hour income week.
Why do some Bishops and some Catholics support Obama and those in his Democratic Party of Death?
The USCCB Committee on Migration works to allow ILLEGALS all the benefits of those who migrate legally.
What is wrong with this picture? It certainly violates the Doctrine of the Faith – CCC 2241.
The USCCB must abolish their MIGRATION Committee.
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PETE the people who are working more than one job is the result of people not being paid a living wage. Republicans have rebuffed attempts to raise the minimum wage at every turn. That is not Obama’s issue. Obama and Obama care have NOTHING to do with that.
There is one major company that does the computer algorithm trick discussed in this post, and that is Walmart. It is an enormous employer, and is quite famous for paying unbelieveably low wages and offering people irregular work hours. Obama and Obamacare have NOTHING to do with that.
And finally, I am happy to agree 100% with Bob’s post at 6:42 am. I could not have made that point better.
The need for this sad “industry” is illustrative of St. JP II’s and Pope Benedict’s criticisms of capitalism in which there is no regard for the worker’s dignity or family life; profits and efficiency are all that matter!
Pete, your first paragraph is absolutely false, both in its logic and its conclusion: proctor ergo propter hoc doesn’t apply here. The “unconventional” work hours you refer to have been around for centuries. “Conventional” work hours are any eight hours in a 24 hour period. Ask any of the folks who work different shifts each day. The “daycare” business is just catching up to reality.
A second point is that the nature of work has changed. Many people work from home. Many companies don’t need full time workers because of automation and improved processes. It is true, however, that some companies only allow employees to work 29 hours a week so that they don’t have to provide benefits. But, this was going on twenty years or more ago. Long before our current President took office or the Congress passed the Affordable Care Act. I would agree with you that the Bishops need to get out of the migration business.
What a tragic situation, for these poor children! Our country desperately needs a return to the traditional family, with the entire Nation focused on it, and on good, family values! Science has brought a lot of good– but as it is not carefully used, it is too dehumanizing, and too destructive! Better to forget about saving money and time– and discard destructive scientific inventions! And why in the world, must we constantly bow to the domination of the computer, in everything? Human beings are meant by God, to live by the design of Nature, which He created! When I was a child, our society was very stable, with very stable roles of Mother and Father, and the stable role of the Family— with Judeo-Christian values firmly in place! No daycare, except in a rare circumstance. A relative was always on-hand, for babysitting. We also do not need the silly “preschool!” Children need their own backyard to play in, with perhaps neighbor children– and their very own Mother, to daily care for them, and guide them!
I will add one more thing, to my above post. In a stable society, with the focus on the traditional home and family, and good family values—- children have the chance to grow up much better, even in times of great economic hardships! A child has basic stability provided, and knows what the roles of a real Mother and Father ought to be! A real Mother and Father are caring and responsible adults, morally upright, who contribute to their society, and to their church– and are good citizens of America, our blessed Nation! They provide a warm, safe, loving home, and their children can depend on them! They sacrifice to nurture their children, and protect them from all evil. They are NOT selfish, immature, hedonistic wild hippies or misfits, or morally questionable, and irresponsible! If Mother is forced to work an odd job, at strange hours, due to financial needs of the family– and Father is not at home– then, take the kids to Grandma’s house! Let Grandma “spoil” them, with lots of love, and special treats!
Gosh Beave, d’ya think if we go to grandma’s house she’d make us milk and cookies?
No numbers are attached this article. How many American families are we talking about? A few thousand or hundreds of thousands? It make a difference in any response.
This is heartbreaking and thank you for posting this. I think many families are really struggling just to make it and this is a good reminder of the lengths some have to go to in order to make ends meet.
I agree with Carol’s post. What a heartbreaking situation, and so many struggling families are in desperate need of childcare help! The people who run these daycare centers, are to be praised, for their loving childcare services! But how sad, that our country is torn to pieces, economically, and the family is destabilized tragically! However– these dedicated childcare services are a great blessing! Perhaps some of the churches could also offer free childcare services, by dedicated volunteers, for these difficult situations!