Universal Childcare?

[Binkybobo]

I applaud you! I don't think many could turn their lives around in 3 short months but you've proven it's possible.

Where I now work we have a small food bank and the people that give the most are the people that have been in your shoes. One thing you might consider instead of lugging all of that food to your food bank every week is to purchase one or two $10.00 grocery gift cards. We keep them on hand as it's just enough to buy milk, eggs, bread or some meat - things we can't store.

I can usually get a vibe from people and I've yet to detect anyone that wasn't clearly in need. If they are taking advantage, they'll have to settle it with the big man upstairs.

Sorry - I've gotten off track here.

Here they have bags already prepared for the food bank at the grocery store. I just pay for the prebagged groceries,and the store donates them to the charity. Personally, I was embarrassed to walk into the pantry each week. At the time I needed the help and was very greatful. I think the support given to me by the charity, the deadline,and my own need for independence were the things that sped up the process for me.

[DCMom]

I have learned alot of things while being a child care provider but the one of the biggest things I have learned is that 3/4 of money issues aren't about lack of income but lack of ability to budget and prioritize.

This. Exactly.

[Willow]

as far as getting ready for kindergarten and the NEED to do so.. im surprised none of you have had any child go thru kindergarten in the last couple of years??

My kids are in 3rd and 4th grade respectively this year.

They never did any pre-K (save for what I taught them at home) and their kindergarten was nothing like what you describe. The only thing that was different was my daughter went all day every other day because K wasn't available every day unless you could pay for it (at the time I couldn't). When my son went the following year I could afford it (to the tune of $210/month) and the only thing different about his experience is they didn't do a nap time like I had when I went.

I don't think what they're learning is really all that different from what I was learning at their ages and this year was the first year my daughter has said anything about doing any sort of standardized testing.

If anything things have done a bit of a backslide imho. I could read very well by the end of kindergarten, as could my children, but their classmates struggled greatly with that up through 2nd grade. Social skills have completely gone done the crapper....I literally hate to visit their school because the way most kids behave towards each other and staff just pisses me off

[allsmiles]

My kids are in 3rd and 4th grade respectively this year.

They never did any pre-K (save for what I taught them at home) and their kindergarten was nothing like what you describe. The only thing that was different was my daughter went all day every other day because K wasn't available every day unless you could pay for it (at the time I couldn't). When my son went the following year I could afford it (to the tune of $210/month) and the only thing different about his experience is they didn't do a nap time like I had when I went.

I don't think what they're learning is really all that different from what I was learning at their ages and this year was the first year my daughter has said anything about doing any sort of standardized testing.

If anything things have done a bit of a backslide imho. I could read very well by the end of kindergarten, as could my children, but their classmates struggled greatly with that up through 2nd grade. Social skills have completely gone done the crapper....I literally hate to visit their school because the way most kids behave towards each other and staff just pisses me off

i totally understand my experience isnt like everyones..but i know its not the only one either.. i seem to remember a former teacher talking about kindy expectations a few threads ago.. but anyway.. just offering a different perspective.. some parents loved the fact that their 3 year old was getting h/w everyday and doing class projects.. the demand for pk3 programs continue to be well above whats available here in Dallas if for no other reason than free daycare!!! happyface..

[DayCareDiva30]

Here's my take on it. I think the programs shoud be offered for a short period of time or under certain circumstances. A few years ago my husband was laid off from a very high paying job. At the time I was not working because I didn't have to. We were left with no income. We went to a local christian charity for food, and they offered financial counseling. At our first meeting we discussed what our financial problems were, and made a plan. The plan included ways we could improve our finances, and where we were going to be financially in 3months when the charity would no longer be assisting us. My husband's goals were obviously to find another high paying job, and my goals were to find a well paying part time job and reasonable childcare accomidations. They checked in with us each month to see what we were doing to obtain those goals, and where we were on our journey. At the end of the 3 months they stopped helping us with our bills and food and we were financially independent again. In a Nutshell. We have provided for ourselves very well ever since. It only took 3 months of help. I will forever have a respect for christian charities and would gladly volunteer my time to pay it foward. Everytime I go to the grocery store I buy a bag of charity groceries because I am able to give back. If we are going to have government programs such as foodstamps etc. they should be set up similarly to this charity. What have you done this month to become more financialy independent? What have you done to make sure that you and your children won't starve at the end of these 3 months?
I've never had foodstamps, only this 3 month period of assistance. I am proud of you all for working as hard as you have. I also understand that there are times when people accept help with the intent of working their butts off and paying it foward to someone else.

[Starburst]

What the govenrment really needs to do is focus more on re-educating able-minded adults so that they can find better jobs and less people would be dependent on these programs and they would be able afford daycare. My mom is a single mom of two kids and a few times when she was between jobs or even had 2 jobs but was barely scraping by she tried to get assistants but they said she made too much or wasn't eligable. My mom was on a waiting list for re-education on unemployment for the last year (they only accept the first 200 at a time and she was placed in the 400's) where she could still collect unemployment while she went to school but when she final got excepted they canceled the program (because of the budget cuts) and her unemployment is going to run out soon ... if she went back to school on her own with financial aid she wouldn't be eligable to collect unemployment, She is in her 50s and never went to college; she always worked at resturants but after she got laid off it's been hard for her to find a long-term job. So apparently the government would much rather you just stay in your slump and look for another dead end job for only minimum wage (when you would get paid more if you collected unemployment) and be on an endless waiting list than just help them get into a program they could finish in less than a year and have better luck finding a job.

Also most adults only make minimum wage and the national MW hasn't caught up to the cost of living. Though some states and even some cities do have higher minimum wage (usually because their COL is higher but still not really enough to suppliment a good enough living). Heck, in the FCC field you make less than minimum wage (per child/family) and people are always complaining about the cost.

[LaLa1923]

My whole take on the "programs" thing is that there is no longer any incentive to do better. Raise the minimum wage because people on it cant survive? Then strive for a better job than minimum wage. If you qualify for financial aid, go to school to get the better job. If people dont have to work hard to survive, some wont and if brought up that way, more and more generations will become people with no incentive. To be honest, government control scares me! I think I am intelligent enough to figure things out on my own. Yea, universal healthcare sounds great until its between your mother and a young person who needs care and there isnt enough for both. guess whos dying?

Going back to school USED to be the answer! People can't get the jobs they went to school for. People are being turned away for being "over qualified".

[jen2651]

As a former Head Start employee, the point was to teach the parents/families to learn to work and be self-sufficient, it was to keep them in the system and make sure they continued to sign up for everything they could.

After all, if they became self sufficient and no longer needed any type of assistance, there would be a lot of people down at human services out of work.

I made over $13 per hour working at Head Start. STARTING pay with NO education and over 20+ years ago.

Something just not right about that. I have lots of other behind the scenes stories so.... I agree. Head Start is not what it was intended to be.

So when did it change? My parents never had to meet with anyone regarding nutrition/proper parenting etc for either my brother or I. I would have been 28 years ago, and he 25...I guess I didn't realize it was that long ago.

When I had my out of home job some of the people who were the parent 'meeters' (not sure of their title) were just a joke. I'm sorry, I am not trying to be mean or snotty but at least twice a year I met with one due to my line of work - they were trying to utilize my services and would allow me a place to provide some 'face to face' with what I did...anyway, there was incredible turnover and the last 3 people I met with were so 'yucky'... If my child was in the program and they were meeting with me at my house telling me how to parent, I think I'd probably laugh in their face. Sorry, but my husband and I technically qualified for the program but the transportation was not an option and the whole 'meeting with someone in my home' was a total turn off.

[Michelle]

I had a neighbor that went to a mandatory jump start parent class for parents wanting their kids to get free preschool here and she said it was so ridiculous.

They talked down to her like she was very uneducated.

They did demonstrations on how to use scissors, how to help your child with their kinder homework. etc.

She walked out and said if they want to kick her daughter out, go ahead but she was not staying!

The school district is getting VERY intrusive with families too!
I had a parent/teacher meeting and she wanted me to tell her everything we do minute by minute from the time we get home from school until past bedtime.
They even have the kids fill out questionnaires about how they are disciplined at home!

I really think that these young toddler years should be spent at home or in a family daycare. They is no need to force them into school when they are still so young! Let them run through the grass barefoot,have pillow fights with friends, make tents out of blankets, make homemade cake with mom or their awesome providers, learn to share, learn their abc's and make friends in a non institutional environment...they have 13 years of school plus college!

Let them enjoy their wild and free days to be kids!
The First 5 commercials that are playing on our local stations make it seem like the kids will end up in prison if they don't start preschool super early..

Come on, give me a break!

[Blackcat31]

So when did it change? My parents never had to meet with anyone regarding nutrition/proper parenting etc for either my brother or I. I would have been 28 years ago, and he 25...I guess I didn't realize it was that long ago.

When I had my out of home job some of the people who were the parent 'meeters' (not sure of their title) were just a joke. I'm sorry, I am not trying to be mean or snotty but at least twice a year I met with one due to my line of work - they were trying to utilize my services and would allow me a place to provide some 'face to face' with what I did...anyway, there was incredible turnover and the last 3 people I met with were so 'yucky'... If my child was in the program and they were meeting with me at my house telling me how to parent, I think I'd probably laugh in their face. Sorry, but my husband and I technically qualified for the program but the transportation was not an option and the whole 'meeting with someone in my home' was a total turn off.

I had a neighbor that went to a mandatory jump start parent class for parents wanting their kids to get free preschool here and she said it was so ridiculous.

They talked down to her like she was very uneducated.

They did demonstrations on how to use scissors, how to help your child with their kinder homework. etc.

She walked out and said if they want to kick her daughter out, go ahead but she was not staying!

The school district is getting VERY intrusive with families too!
I had a parent/teacher meeting and she wanted me to tell her everything we do minute by minute from the time we get home from school until past bedtime.

They even have the kids fill out questionnaires about how they are disciplined at home!

My title was Assistant Classroom Teacher/Home Vistor. I spent M/W in the classroom and T/Th driving to each students house for a bi-weekly home visit. During my home visit, it was my job to do many of the things Michelle listed in her post.

One of the biggest things I had issue with was that we were told during our staff meetings was that we were to treat each family as if they had no more than an 8th grade education. That really hit hard for me because I felt like they were telling us that just because a family was low income it meant they were stupid or uneducated and I felt that was really not ok.

One of our monthly "goals" was to make sure each family assigned to us (I had 19) was signed up for and utilizing EVERY government assistance program available. If they didn't know about one, educate them on it. If they didn't want to sign up, we were to convince them that they were doing their family/child a dis-service by not using tools and resources available to them.

Bottom line was that I felt it was a "recruiting" mission to make sure families signed up for, stayed on and used every and all assistance programs that were available but yet the whole public concept behind Head Start (and similar programs) was to help families become self-sufficient and able to stand on there own. (??)

What a joke.

The catalyst for me was when I went to "refill" my supply tote and wanted to buy a Candyland game from Wal-mart for $3.98. My supervisor told me no and that I was to ONLY purchase things from a specialty catalog, like Kaplan or Lakeshore Learning, you know where the Candyland games are more like $15 instead. When I questioned her, she said we HAD to spend our grant money because if we didn't we wouldn't get as much next year.

I had a hard time swallowing the fact that we (as a supposed helping hand for families) were doing nothing but trying to spend the grant money faster than the year before, were having catored luncheons in all sorts of great locations as staff meetings and talking smack behind the parents back. We also went to tons of ECE conferences and had the nicest best rooms, all paid for us by Head Start

The spending was UNREAL!!!!!!......All the while the families we were supposedly trying to help struggled day to day with putting food on their tables.... NOT something I wanted any part of.

[Willow]

BC - you should be a whistleblower

All that right there is why I cannot stand big government and why I could never in a million years identify as democrat. It's one thing if if they want to put up a billion and one social programs to assist everyone with everything under the sun, but when that's how spending is handled?

There's just no way the country can sustain itself.


Put a mom that's had to feed her family on $20 a week in the White House and I guarantee we'd be completely debt free in 3 years because that crap would be laughed out the door and then smashed with complete and utter disgust

[juliebug]

My title was Assistant Classroom Teacher/Home Vistor. I spent M/W in the classroom and T/Th driving to each students house for a bi-weekly home visit. During my home visit, it was my job to do many of the things Michelle listed in her post.

One of the biggest things I had issue with was that we were told during our staff meetings was that we were to treat each family as if they had no more than an 8th grade education. That really hit hard for me because I felt like they were telling us that just because a family was low income it meant they were stupid or uneducated and I felt that was really not ok.

One of our monthly "goals" was to make sure each family assigned to us (I had 19) was signed up for and utilizing EVERY government assistance program available. If they didn't know about one, educate them on it. If they didn't want to sign up, we were to convince them that they were doing their family/child a dis-service by not using tools and resources available to them.

Bottom line was that I felt it was a "recruiting" mission to make sure families signed up for, stayed on and used every and all assistance programs that were available but yet the whole public concept behind Head Start (and similar programs) was to help families become self-sufficient and able to stand on there own. (??)

What a joke.

The catalyst for me was when I went to "refill" my supply tote and wanted to buy a Candyland game from Wal-mart for $3.98. My supervisor told me no and that I was to ONLY purchase things from a specialty catalog, like Kaplan or Lakeshore Learning, you know where the Candyland games are more like $15 instead. When I questioned her, she said we HAD to spend our grant money because if we didn't we wouldn't get as much next year.

I had a hard time swallowing the fact that we (as a supposed helping hand for families) were doing nothing but trying to spend the grant money faster than the year before, were having catored luncheons in all sorts of great locations as staff meetings and talking smack behind the parents back. We also went to tons of ECE conferences and had the nicest best rooms, all paid for us by Head Start

The spending was UNREAL!!!!!!......All the while the families we were supposedly trying to help struggled day to day with putting food on their tables.... NOT something I wanted any part of.

I have seen some of the grant spending crazy before it is just unreal to me!!! i hate that people and government think that way.

[My3cents]

:hug:

BC - you should be a whistleblower

All that right there is why I cannot stand big government and why I could never in a million years identify as democrat. It's one thing if if they want to put up a billion and one social programs to assist everyone with everything under the sun, but when that's how spending is handled?

There's just no way the country can sustain itself.


Put a mom that's had to feed her family on $20 a week in the White House and I guarantee we'd be completely debt free in 3 years because that crap would be laughed out the door and then smashed with complete and utter disgust

:hug:

[Michelle]

My title was Assistant Classroom Teacher/Home Vistor. I spent M/W in the classroom and T/Th driving to each students house for a bi-weekly home visit. During my home visit, it was my job to do many of the things Michelle listed in her post.

One of the biggest things I had issue with was that we were told during our staff meetings was that we were to treat each family as if they had no more than an 8th grade education. That really hit hard for me because I felt like they were telling us that just because a family was low income it meant they were stupid or uneducated and I felt that was really not ok.

One of our monthly "goals" was to make sure each family assigned to us (I had 19) was signed up for and utilizing EVERY government assistance program available. If they didn't know about one, educate them on it. If they didn't want to sign up, we were to convince them that they were doing their family/child a dis-service by not using tools and resources available to them.

Bottom line was that I felt it was a "recruiting" mission to make sure families signed up for, stayed on and used every and all assistance programs that were available but yet the whole public concept behind Head Start (and similar programs) was to help families become self-sufficient and able to stand on there own. (??)

What a joke.

The catalyst for me was when I went to "refill" my supply tote and wanted to buy a Candyland game from Wal-mart for $3.98. My supervisor told me no and that I was to ONLY purchase things from a specialty catalog, like Kaplan or Lakeshore Learning, you know where the Candyland games are more like $15 instead. When I questioned her, she said we HAD to spend our grant money because if we didn't we wouldn't get as much next year.

I had a hard time swallowing the fact that we (as a supposed helping hand for families) were doing nothing but trying to spend the grant money faster than the year before, were having catored luncheons in all sorts of great locations as staff meetings and talking smack behind the parents back. We also went to tons of ECE conferences and had the nicest best rooms, all paid for us by Head Start

The spending was UNREAL!!!!!!......All the while the families we were supposedly trying to help struggled day to day with putting food on their tables.... NOT something I wanted any part of.

I actually tried to sign up my dd for some kind of first 5 program and I didn't know it was an entitlement program or what it was about or who paid for it, I just saw a flyer for free preschool and free gifts etc. so I called and called but they never called me back.. they always answered in spanish and I told them I don't speak spanish and then they said that I probably didn't qualify. I got tired of trying to get her in so I just gave up and taught her myself.This is like 6 years ago

[spud912]

My title was Assistant Classroom Teacher/Home Vistor. I spent M/W in the classroom and T/Th driving to each students house for a bi-weekly home visit. During my home visit, it was my job to do many of the things Michelle listed in her post.

One of the biggest things I had issue with was that we were told during our staff meetings was that we were to treat each family as if they had no more than an 8th grade education. That really hit hard for me because I felt like they were telling us that just because a family was low income it meant they were stupid or uneducated and I felt that was really not ok.

One of our monthly "goals" was to make sure each family assigned to us (I had 19) was signed up for and utilizing EVERY government assistance program available. If they didn't know about one, educate them on it. If they didn't want to sign up, we were to convince them that they were doing their family/child a dis-service by not using tools and resources available to them.

Bottom line was that I felt it was a "recruiting" mission to make sure families signed up for, stayed on and used every and all assistance programs that were available but yet the whole public concept behind Head Start (and similar programs) was to help families become self-sufficient and able to stand on there own. (??)

What a joke.

The catalyst for me was when I went to "refill" my supply tote and wanted to buy a Candyland game from Wal-mart for $3.98. My supervisor told me no and that I was to ONLY purchase things from a specialty catalog, like Kaplan or Lakeshore Learning, you know where the Candyland games are more like $15 instead. When I questioned her, she said we HAD to spend our grant money because if we didn't we wouldn't get as much next year.

I had a hard time swallowing the fact that we (as a supposed helping hand for families) were doing nothing but trying to spend the grant money faster than the year before, were having catored luncheons in all sorts of great locations as staff meetings and talking smack behind the parents back. We also went to tons of ECE conferences and had the nicest best rooms, all paid for us by Head Start

The spending was UNREAL!!!!!!......All the while the families we were supposedly trying to help struggled day to day with putting food on their tables.... NOT something I wanted any part of.

That's the government for you! I worked for the government prior to opening my daycare and I remember being surprised about the grant thing as well .

One year, the management bought a bunch of incubators (for bacterial growth) worth thousands of dollars with the department's money in an effort to "use up" the money so we could get equivalent money budgeted to us the next year. Only later did they realize that they were not legally allowed to grow anything in them (per OSHA, for obvious safety reasons....we are not a chemistry lab!). They ended up being thousand dollar storage devices :confused:.

Also, we could only purchase office supplies through Office Depot because we had a contract with them. There were so many instances we could have saved SOOO much money if we used another purveyor or bought the items used (especially cubicle equipment).