Argumentative Essay

Argumentative Essay

Introduction

Since the 1970s, one of the most dramatic changes in the structure of the American family has been the increased employment of mothers outside the home. According to the sixth annual interagency report America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2002, the share of all children with at least one parent working full-time increased from 70% in 1980 to 80% in 2000. Reflecting a tight economy and company downsizing efforts, the share of all children with at least one parent working full-time dropped to 78% in 2002. For children living in two-parent households, 89% had at least one parent working in 2002, compared to 80% in 1980. Forty-nine percent of single mothers and 70% of single fathers were working in 2002. (See Figure 3.6.)

Argumentative Essay: Parents should have to Assume the Responsibility for Child Care rather than the Government or their Employers

Despite the growing number of women in the workforce, since 1994 the number of children in two-parent families with a stay-at-home mother and working father increased steadily. In 2002 about eleven million children, or 25% of children under age fifteen living with two married parents, had full-time stay-at-home mothers. About 189,000 similarly situated children had stay-at-home fathers and full-time working mothers in 2002. The number of fathers who remained at home to care for the family while their wives worked increased erratically between 1994 and 2004.

As more and more mothers held paying jobs, the issue of child care became a great concern, not only for parents but also for policymakers. The implementation of welfare-reform legislation, which required welfare recipients to work, further pushed the problem of available child care to the forefront. While only one-third of children with single mothers saw their mothers employed full-time in 1980, that share increased to almost half of children with single mothers by 2002.

For both single parents and two-parent working couples, child care presented significant challenges. Among preschool age children, 48% of 0-2 year olds and 25% of 3-6 year olds received total parental care from stay-at-home mothers or fathers in 2001. Some two-parent working couples worked different shifts to allow one parent to be at home with the children. In America's Children 2004 the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics compares the type of care received by children age zero to two and three to six (not yet in kindergarten) in 2001. For infants and toddlers (age ...