The Best Way to Take Care Your Baby

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Most parents are concerned about which type of child care is best for their children. In the past, mothers usually stayed at home to raise their children, so they did not need to decide who nurtured the children. However, today’s circumstances have changed. The ratio of stay-at-home mothers has been decreasing steadily. According to statistics, 61% of mothers with children under age three were employed in 2012, whereas only 34% of them worked in 1975 (Statistics Brain). Because of financial problems, some of them might work, or they might want to work in order to build their careers since traditional gender roles have changed. Regardless of why they work, working mothers who want to keep working have to return to their work in three months after giving birth. According to the Family and Medical Leave Act signed by Clinton in 1993, employees are allowed to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for a newborn baby or sick relative (Child Care). Therefore, they either have to find substitutes who can care for their babies or take them to some child-care providers such as day care centers or home-based child-care providers. In percentage terms, while only 27% of infants and toddlers are raised by their mothers or fathers, 22% are cared for by relatives, 22% are in day care centers, 17% are in home-based child care providers, and 7% are with babysitters or nannies (“Fast Facts”). If a father or a mother cannot help but work altogether, they have no choice except for these alternatives. Even if the selected method, might work better than they expected for the best child care, either one of the parents should stay at home to raise their children. If they cannot care their children at home, they should find a high-quality day care ce...

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...e number of unregulated home-based child care providers was 1.1 million. However, it has decreased recently because more regulated providers have turned into unregulated and, the decreased number recorded 11,383 in 2006. (MacLaggan) One problem is that the quality of the unregulated home-based day care is as poor as, and sometimes worse than that of day care centers in regard to children’s safety and development (“Child Care”). Another problem is that some providers who care for a few children in their homes do not even know that they are running businesses illegally but think that they are just babysitting (MacLaggan). As a result, deaths in unregulated home-based day care have been increasing steadily. While ten children died in unregulated child care in 2005, eighteen children died in 2007 and more than half of the deaths were due to abuse or neglect (MacLaggan).

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