Unit B - Blog 8

Many different problems occur for working mothers in urban poverty, especially when you compare them to poor mothers living in mixed income areas. The first problematic area would obviously be with the environment they are surrounded by. There is crime and safety issues all of over urban areas. In fact, in the youtube.com video 7 Days at Minimum Wage, one mother talks about her concerns with letting her children outside of their home because she is concerned they will “get shot or killed.” They have to worry about that, as well as the working environment. Many urban areas don’t offer as many job opportunities, especially for the less skilled. Our society’s structures work in a way to keep the poor oppressed. Several mothers in Putting Children First talk about how they are essentially forced to stay in the neighborhoods they were raised in because they have to use their friends and family as home-based child care, because they cannot afford it. On top of that, they have to start working at a young age to be able to assist with their families or provide themselves with necessities. Due to them being in the workforce early, they do not have many opportunities to increase their education, and often cannot afford. Obviously their families aren’t able to afford it either. I would like to go back to the problems with childcare though. As we several times in Putting Children First, many of these parents have a difficult time working and paying for childcare. They often lose their jobs because they have to tend to their children. When they do get jobs they lose their childcare benefits. And as we saw in the book with Julia, her paperwork was often lost or she was put on waiting lists for certain types of childcare. In urban areas it is likely easier to have paperwork get lost and waiting lists as there are mass amounts of people that are all going through the same thing. The next problematic area with child care in urban areas is also the quality of care that is actually given. The old saying is, “you get what you pay for.” Many of these parents rely on relatives who are available because they themselves don’t work and aren’t very responsible. These are the individuals that are supposed to be developing these children? Or the child will be put into family day care centers or networks. Some of the family day care networks have up to 200 children. How can a child truly be developed properly without getting the full amount of attention needed? These are all questions that urban mothers have to deal with. Often these mothers are single too. Also a popular trend throughout the videos and book was the father being incarcerated. This goes back to the crime issue. Some of these challenges are like not as difficult in mixed income neighborhoods. Many patrons of the urban neighborhood depend on the little bit of extra cash they receive for “helping out” and conducting home-based child care when the parent is in a bind. In a mixed income neighborhood it is likely easier to find someone that isn’t as dependent on the money, and it isn’t just money driven child care. Poor mothers in mixed income neighborhoods likely don’t have to worry about paperwork getting mixed up or waiting lists either. And last, they probably have more job opportunities available to them.