Daycare? Bah! Mothers should just stay at home!

By Ravenhawk | March 2, 2007

Oftentimes I think how people overrate the hick-ness of the state I live in. Idaho is very often equililated with redneck and, coming from california, I was a bit fearful when I first moved here. However, living in a college town, things don’t really seem too backward. And, being in the blue section of the red state, people don’t get all up in your case about being liberal either.

However, every now and then I get a reminder of just how backwards this state is. Earlier this week a bill was in committee at the state legislature to raise the requirements for day care providers. Basically, it said you had to get a license (much like you do in the rest of the country) and you have to get a criminal background check, and some other basic stuff. It didn’t include anything highly intrusive as far as I read.
I was rejected in committe by the republican majority. About half of them quoted their reasons as saying that Mothers shouldn’t be putting their children in daycare, they should be staying home. And that daycare is bad for the kids. Well.. Maybe day care is bad for kids when you have no requirements as to the safety of the day care organization. Do they really think that if a woman needs to be working in order for her family to survive that she is going to stay home with her child because they rejected that bill? No.
They’re going to get day care that might be run by a felon. The bill was meant to create a safe environment for children, and it was rejected because some legislators are still living in the 18th century.
I for one am deeply disturbed. I hope to see some other form of the bill submitted next year and that I won’t be seeing any horror stories in the news about children in lousy daycares.
Quite frankly, my mom ran a day care when I was a kid, and while some of the children were the spoiled brats of rich people, the day care experience itself is not a bad one when the person running it actually cares for the children.