Child care today

From the universally admired author of the best-selling classic Your Baby and Child, the first comprehensive--and objective--book on the state of child care in America and the world today. Who is caring for today's children? How well are they succeeding? What does care cost, and who is paying for it? How do parents go about choosing care for their children, and are they satisfied with what they find? Penelope Leach answers these and other urgent questions with facts and figures gathered from the most current research, brought to life by the voices of parents, including those involved in her own five-year study.Leach sees "work-home balance" as being the major conundrum of the day. She delineates the challenge of fitting children's unchanged needs into society's changing demands and the dilemma of today's parents needing to be in two places at once. She describes in detail the various ways Western countries address that challenge: care given by parents, extended family, and nonfamily; care provided in the child's home, in other homes, and in professional settings; child care funded by paying parents or by the government. Considering the issues from the various viewpoints of politici