Unit B - Blog 9

All of the issues that poor women and parents face trickle down to their children. In several of the stories in Putting Children First, there are similar trends. Mothers having issues affording childcare, finding quality childcare, holding a job, having a quality job, healthcare, etc. All of these things not only affect the parent, but the children as well. One interesting fact in the article by the NCCP titled Who are America’s Poor Children? The Official Story, was that children are usually more poor early in their childhood as opposed to the later years. This is very clear with a lot of the families in Putting Children First. One mother Julia had many issues with finding a job, securing a job, and earning decent wages when she got to that level. Often she, and other parents, lost their jobs because of circumstances involving their children such as personal health, childcare, and their children’s health. Because they aren’t able to sustain jobs and gain solid work experience, they have a difficult time getting jobs that have higher salary and benefits.

Another part of the NCCP article that stuck out to me was the current cost of things. The article stated that 1/3 of people’s income in the 1950’s went towards food (Fass&Cauthen, pg1). It said that families currently spend more on transportation, housing, and childcare, which is essentially taking the food off of the table for these families.

Some other interesting areas in the NCCP statistics were the stats relating to minorities and immigrants. Many of the parents from Putting Children First lived in big cities and urban areas. Many of the statistics from this article illustrate that these areas have the biggest issues with poverty. One thing specifically that caught my eye was the statistics in New Jersey. Overall, Jersey is under ten percent for child poverty, however, their minority poverty levels were still high. Approximately twenty percent of Latino and African American children were below poverty. The low for white poverty was four percent. These facts clearly demonstrate that there is certainly a difference when it comes to the two. Part of the reason for his is the diversity in urban areas, and as both the book and the article point out, urban areas have a lot more struggles with jobs and childcare.

The last area I would like to relate between the article and book, and the parents affect on their children relating to poverty is the solutions suggested at the end of the NCCP article. The solutions were to give tax credits to these struggling parents, raise minimum wage, and offer more benefits such as health care and sick days for parents and children. These were all issues that affected the parents in the book with childcare and employment. Raising minimum wage was also a popular solution recommended in the youtube videos. I definitely agree with offer more health care benefits and sick days. I think the sick days would really help out with some of these parents holding jobs for longer, and the healthcare would help prevent these parents from burring themselves in debt. My only concern with minimum wage going up is the prices in everything else going up. As we have seen recently in Arizona, when minimum wage went up a few years ago so did things such as milk and food, bus passes, and clothing. The last area of solutions that the article suggested was for children to have better early learning experiences so they don’t get stuck in the same positions their parents did. This to me is the best solution, which is also affected by the others as well. Many of these children didn’t have the choice to be born in these situations and often have to defy the odds to get out. A lot of the issues with childcare have a negative effect on their development and early education. This is also influenced by the lack of jobs or salaries which limits the parents’ options on childcare and they always don’t receive the best quality.

All of the big concerns and issues seem to be a popular trend between the book and the article. As we continue to research these things, we continue to see that they are all related and influence each element.