Putting Children First: How Low-Wage Working Mothers Manage Child Care (review)

Since the passage of the welfare reform bill in 1996, the issue of moving single mothers from welfare to work has been a policy priority. Yet there has always been a formidable obstacle in attempting to achieve this goal – the lack of affordable, dependable, and decent quality child care for such families. Examining this fundamental problem is the central theme behind Putting Children First by Ajay Chaudry. As Chaudry states, "With the changes following welfare reform leading to more single mothers working and with a continuing shortage of child care funds, what are low-income mothers doing about child care?"

Chapter 1 begins by providing an overview and background of the study. The sample consisted of 42 low-income single mother families in New York City. They were evenly divided between African-American and Latina women. At the time of first contact, mothers had a child between the ages of 2 and 3, and all were employed at low wage jobs. They were then followed over the course of two to three years. During this time the women in the study moved in and out of different jobs as well as different types of child care arrangements. Chaudry conducted at least three semistructured in-depth interviews with each mother during the study period, along with more informal conversations and participant observation to document how their situations changed over time. The interview material is then used throughout the chapters in order to provide insight and understanding into the problems and issues facing these women as they juggle their child care needs with their employment needs.

Chapter 2 looks at the types of child care arrangements that mothers made for their young children. Often times they had to settle for whatever they could find in a relatively short period of time, rather than what they would have preferred. Their options were severely constrained by the care that was available in their communities, what they could afford, and what they could quickly arrange as they transitioned to work. The types of child care most commonly used were kin and informal care, family day care, center-based care, and father care arrangements.

Chapter 3 examines the spell dynamics of child care use. Chaudry finds that the length of each child care spell is relatively short – 7.5 months on average. In addition, a majority of children experienced five or more primary nonmaternal care spells between the ages of 0 and 4. One of the major reasons for the frequency and short term nature of these spells was the inherent instability and changing circumstances that mothers faced at work as well as in other aspects of their lives. Throughout the book, Chaudry constructs several timelines that graphically illustrate the fluctuating circumstances of work, child care, and housing for specific families.

Chapter 4 details the concerns that mothers expressed regarding their children's child care arrangements. These included having to start a child too early in care, the difficulty in finding a first child care arrangement, and children spending too much time in child care as well as being in too many different child care arrangements. Chapter 5 addresses how mothers coped, adapted and learned over time with respect to dealing with these concerns.

The final chapter turns to the author's policy suggestions for improving and strengthening the system of child care for low income mothers and their children. These include increasing available care options and supports for families with infants, making investments in early education (such as Head Start) to encourage childhood development, improving access to child care systems and promoting continuity in care, and providing child care assistance to all eligible low-income families.

The book concludes with three very helpful appendixes. Appendix A provides a review of the literature regarding child care and low-income families. Appendix B describes in further detail the research design and methodology used in the study, while Appendix C contains the interview guides...