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   HebrideanHecate (hebrideanhecate@spinster.xyz)'s status on Wednesday, 22-Feb-2023 01:13:17 JST HebrideanHecate

   https://thecritic.co.uk/issues/february-2023/who-will-look-after-the-kids/

   Who will look after the kids? Why should the State prioritise getting new mothers back to work above all else?

   When it comes to the question of who should care for the nation’s children, the UK has made a clear policy decision: not their parents.

   In this country, much of the help with the increasingly unaffordable cost of raising children is effectively in the form of vouchers that can be used to buy Ofsted-certified childcare. If instead you want to look after your child yourself, you forfeit these benefits.

   Why do we have this system, when we could instead take the budget for childcare vouchers and give it to parents to spend as they see fit? In this setup, nothing would stop families from continuing to put their children in daycare with this allowance, if that was indeed what worked best for them; if they preferred to take an extended leave from work or reduce their hours to spend more time at home, they could use the money to fund this instead. Or they could use it to pay a relative or friend who was not registered with Ofsted but did have a personal relationship with their child………………………………………………………..

   • Embed this notice
     Penny's Feeling Springy (pennylope@spinster.xyz)'s status on Wednesday, 22-Feb-2023 01:13:17 JST Penny's Feeling Springy

     in reply to
     @HebrideanHecate "Or they could use it to pay a relative or friend who was not registered with Ofsted but did have a personal relationship with their child"
     
     Pretty sure they made that illegal. It's not just that the state doesn't want to help parents raise their kids, they don't want any family involved. Much better that we get disengaged teenagers to do the job and few years time they can probably be replaced by a big screen.
     on-lain ✔ᵛᵉʳᶦᶠᶦᵉᵈ likes this.