Child care: what do families really want?

• Author: Schwartz, Michael

Parents are hard-pressed to find facilities that are accessible, affordable, and reliable.

When parent's seek substitute care for their children, there are three fundamental considerations they weigh - accessibility, affordability, and reliability. The first two seem to be fairly obvious. A substitute caregiver must be accessible: near home and work. Any arrangement that entails substantial added commuting time is not practical. Similarly, the cost of child care must not take up such a large portion of a family's disposable income that it seriously would diminish the benefits of working.

These two factors so closely are related that they could be combined under affordability. If a family can afford to pay, accessible child care will be available. The market of providers is so flexible that it is potentially infinite. The Department of Labor concluded in 1988 that there is no lack of child care. There may be temporary, localized shortages, but the market has proved to be highly responsive to these situations. Where a need appears, someone inevitably and quickly moves to fill it.

The question of reliability is more problematic. When parents hire a babysitter for even one night, they want to be confident their offspring will be safe and secure. This concern is even greater when it is a matter of entering into an arrangement for substitute care on a regular basis over a long period of time.

What constitutes reliability is a highly individualized judgment. Most parents probably have experienced child care arrangements they found unsatisfactory for some reason, and have shopped around for a better one. The factors they weigh in making a judgment about the reliability of a substitute caregiver could be extremely varied.

Parents may be concerned about the meals their youngsters are served or the kind of entertainment offered to them, as well as the ages and behavior of the other children being cared for. The physical environment in which their kids are placed may be uppermost in their minds. In many cases, it may be a personal response to the substitute caregiver. If they find one they like, who inspires confidence and builds a positive relationship with their children, other, more easily measured factors may pale in significance.

Government is incapable of making these personal judgments. What it can do, and does, to address the reliability of child care is to establish certain minimum standards for commercial child care. This is reasonable because there are some objective, measurable conditions the state has a right to demand of those who offer a service on the market.

Yet, it must be admitted that a regulatory standard is a clumsy instrument for guaranteeing a satisfaction that depends so heavily on intangible factors. People will...