Under My Skin

Recently, a friend posted a link on Facebook about the ever-increasing cost of daycare. It stated average cost paid for full time daycare is over $13,000 annually. So I posted a reply. I mentioned how much we paid for Kiernan to attend daycare as an infant and that it was over that average and how it was and still is difficult for us to manage this monthly expense, but it is not an option to drop to one income in our family.

The response I got was normal about how underpaid daycare workers are, and I do agree with that, and how society "does not value children". The post following that one said, "if our society valued children there would be no daycares". That one got under my skin in all kinds of ways.

Yes in a utopia kind of environment this would absolutely be true. However, this person can't know everyone's situation. Sometimes this is simply NOT POSSIBLE. What about a single parent home? If they have no trusted family nearby to care for their child then how would they buy food and shelter without working and putting their child in daycare? Let me answer that one, they wouldn't. I guarantee any child support they get, if any, wouldn't pay for it unless the negligent parent was rolling in money. They'd have to sit at home and live off the system. I think you get my point without having to travel this path further.

As most (every?) parent has, we too have made many sacrifices in the name of our child. We may have hesitated on more than one occasion but damit, we did what was necessary at the time. Just because we are a two-income family does not mean we value our child any less than someone who is a one-income family. He is the light of my  life and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Putting our son in daycare was a very tough decision. I had hesitations at first but have grown more comfortable with it over the years.

Sure, I could give up our house, the dreams it represents, and my car and stay at home, but everyone needs to have dreams to keep them going day after day. I refuse to live in poverty in order to support a child. He deserves better than that. I want him to know the things that were out of reach for me as a child. I want him to know that it takes a lot of work on everyone's part to earn the material items that he may take for granted today, but hopefully won't take for granted years from now. Let's not forget the student loans that I am STILL paying on. I'm supposed to give up my career path after all that work to get that magical piece of paper that isn't even paid for yet? Ya right.