A new Public Agenda survey released in August refutes the notion that parents of very young children are calling for more help with day care from government or from employers.
Among the newest generation of mothers aged 18 to 29, researchers found that four out of five preferred to stay at home with their children rather than place them in day- care centers. Having one parent at home is the best child-care arrangement during the earliest years, according to 70 percent of parents and child advocates surveyed.
Does it take a village? Apparently not. Public Agenda President Deborah Wadsworth found an “extraordinary number of parents of young children who believe absolutely first and foremost that the responsibility for raising young children is theirs. It’s not the government’s, it’s not the employer’s, it’s theirs.”
