Submitted by PerfectSociety in discussion
I can't help but wonder if the focus on the lack of affordable Childcare among social democrats and some socialists in America is somewhat of a distraction from the real culprit/core of the problem. The reason people are requiring Childcare workers in the first place and a Childcare service is because they are having to work so much that they don't have enough time to spend with their kids.
I also notice another problematic trend - the infection-like spread of formalization and the hierarchical education model into earlier and earlier parts of childhood. Driving around, I've noticed various childcare centers that advertise an emphasis on early childhood learning as some kind of effort to "get ahead" of peers academically from the pre-K age onwards. I'm concerned that we are taking away the free time of children at a much earlier age.
I'm certainly not against a form of Childcare, but I can't help but be skeptical and unwilling to support the commodification of Childcare by professionals. I much prefer the alternative of communal parenting, which divides up the labor of raising a child among the members of an intentional community.
What are your thoughts?