Press Release: Child Care Professionals Should Not Replace Parents -- Day to Recognize Providers Hurts Mothers April 1998

At-home mothers will be wondering if they are absent from the nation's consciousness when the country turns its attention to the first Child Care Professionals' Day on Friday, April 24, 1998.  The goal of this event is to help Americans understand and appreciate the role of child care providers in children's development.  Mothers At Home, the nation's largest and oldest non-profit organization supporting at-home mothers, advocates that the critical role of parents should not be overlooked.

"It is commendable to encourage respect for child care providers, yet it is crucial to remember that mothers and fathers who forego or limit their employment to care for their children have suffered the greatest loss of societal esteem," says Heidi Brennan, Public Policy Director of Mothers at Home.  "Do the corporations and child care advocacy groups who are sponsoring Child Care Professionals Day recognize that parents possess the personal commitment to nurture which results in the highest quality child care?  It is fair to say that the growth of child care advocacy over the last three decades has come at the expense of validation for mothers."

Mothers At Home notes that there are nearly seven million at-home mothers who also work without recognition and who believe their efforts should be valued more.  Yet these mothers know they provide absolutely essential elements to their children's healthy, full development.  At-home motherhood is the largest occupational category in the nation.  In addition, almost half (46.9 percent) of working mothers in two-parent families with children under the age of 18 work only part-time, according to a March 1996 U.S. Census Bureau survey, and two-thirds (61 percent) are part-time workers or non-employed mothers.

These statistics clearly indicate that most children are cared for by a parent, and this is a reflection of parent preferences.  Yet families receive the message that more daycare is the sole solution to the work/family balance.  Some child care advocates contend that well-trained child care workers are more competent than parents in caring for their children.

Most child care professionals themselves, such as Rebecca Wilsey, disagree with this message.  Wilsey, an at-home mother who provides part-time home child care, has a master's degree in early childhood education and several years of teaching experience.

"What I've found is that my experience as a mother has given me more insight and experience as a child care provider than my education and professional experience ever could have," Wilsey says.

The debate over proposed child care legislation has raised an important issue for today's mothers.  Regardless of their education, does professionalism simply vanish once women leave their careers to become at-home mothers?  Most women believe that they are more qualified than even the most competent child care providers to care for their own children.

For those families who desire and/or need substitute caregivers, a national goal of attracting, supporting and retaining motivated people in child care jobs is important.  Yet when it is beneath our national dignity as parents to care for our children, how can we expect compassionate and caring people to step forward to do the job, even if well-paid?

While respecting child care providers for their important work, Mothers At Home strongly urges Americans to recognize and encourage today's mothers and fathers in their most important and critical role -- that of nurturing and raising the next generation.  No matter how professional and credentialed, child care providers can never replace the role of parents in crucial aspects of child care.

"In the past twenty years, we have fostered a generation of young people who have heard nothing but put-downs about child rearing.  They have been massively encouraged to ‘do something more important’ with their lives.  Mothering has no prestige.  While we as a nation continue to respect motherhood, we have little respect for its mothers." -- Linda Burton, co-founder of Mothers at Home.

For more information, view Stats and Facts.  It includes current statistics and poll data regarding maternal employment and child care.