Unit B Blog #7

As far as the readings are concerned the main factor that contributed to Julia's inability to find childcare was the lack of any help or alternate source of income. She was raising kids on her own because the father ran out and was the sole breadwinner for her family. The fact that she received absolutely no childcare did not make things any easier. She was attempting to make something of herself by attending college for an associates degree while working at the same time. The instability in her personal life as well as her inability to find a descent paying job lead to the inconsistencies of her child care. She relied on her family such as her boyfriend when the kids were first born, and when he left that forced her to find another way to acquire childcare. She split time watching the children with her sister who moved into her place for a while. Julia and her sister both worked at a local fast food place but they were not bringing in that much money per week. The arrangement stopped working out and Julia got a new job and began to have her cousin help her out with childcare. This was another change for the small children as they now had been with their third childcare provider in their earliest years. Julia would next begin to use agencies through welfare to obtain childcare, but this would fall through as well because welfare often were late with the payments. Julia struggled because she could not find a job that would pay her a wage to live on, and also because welfare was extremely unstable.

The case study about Julia and Jacquelyn is similar to the video about the family with three children that had a scholarship through United Way for daycare payments. This scholarship would be taken from them when the mother received a raise at work, but the raise at work was not significant enough to replace the scholarship, and the family was no longer able to afford it. They now relied on a substitute teacher who would be called into work fairly often. When she did get called into work the kids would be taken care of by very elderly and dependent grandparents. This created much instability for these children and the family's low paying jobs created more conflict in the situation.