International Women's Day 1997
In Defence of Childcare and sanity
by Susan Lazlo

The day the phone call came, Z was screaming so loudly I couldn't hear who was on the other end. I'll ring you back, I told her, not realising how auspicious that call was to be.

We'd like to offer you a full-time position at the child care centre, she said when I got back to her after finally winning the battle of wills with my infant daughter. Fantastic! I had wondered when I was going to be able to return to work as most centres in Sydney have waiting lists of up to three years -at least for babies of Z's age. For two-year-olds it's a different matter, as I was to discover. By then many women have had a second child, making child care an un-affordable luxury anyway.

Nothing had prepared me for the first three months of life with a new- born. The experience, while rewarding, was at the same time demanding and often very frustrating. New mothers, I also discovered, are prey to unsolicited "advice" from all and sundry -often conflicting.

But the near unanimous refrain from my family when I told them about Z's place at the centre was: "Surely she's too young!"; "Do you really have to go back to work?"; "Oh, well, I suppose that's reality these days. In my day we didn't have to do that sort of thing!" I began to wonder whether my return to work was really just a selfish act.

As a feminist I knew the importance of child care and I knew that the few rights women had won in the 1960s and '70s are now under threat. However, I wasn't prepared for the onslaught from family and peers about my choice for Z. I must admit that I began to wonder if they were right. I began to feel guilty. Shouldn't my maternal instinct come to the fore to provide me with near total fulfilment? Isn't this what I opted for when I decided to go ahead with the pregnancy?

I got over this after a while and became angry at how far this reactionary anti-choice, anti-woman propaganda had seeped in. Why should I feel guilty? Shouldn't it be a question of choice? Leaving aside the economic reasons for returning to work, as long as my child was in good hands why should I be considered negligent?

Child care is under threat. Funding cuts to community centres mean that waiting lists will increase, fees will increase and the quality of service will be reduced. This is a crime because child care centres, I've discovered, not only offer professional care and company for children, but, just as importantly, sanity for mothers. Rather than reinventing the wheel in isolation (and often under great duress), child care workers provide first-time mothers with much needed accumulated knowledge and advice.

It is ironic in the extreme that the so-called pro-family Howard Coalition government is, in fact, helping to tear the remaining shreds of family life apart. While child care funding is under attack and token incentives have been given to encourage mothers to stay at home, the backward ideological pap which accompanies these cuts can, and does, sink in very rapidly. A younger generation, for whom the second wave of women's liberation is a rather abstract concept, is even more vulnerable to this "back to the family" push.

However, the contradiction for the government remains. Despite all the talk about "choice", and "doing things the natural way", these days most women are forced by sheer economic necessity to find paid work, most of which, according to the statistics, is casual or part time. This puts child care out of reach for many women. So their "choice" about staying at home to look after the child is really not a choice at all.

Child rearing has not always been the individual responsibility of mothers. In some cultures now, as well in previous societies, extended families pitched in to take responsibility for much of the child rearing. In a world where this is no longer feasible, professional child care not only provides an environment where youngsters learn crucial social survival skills, but it also takes the pressure off one individual, enabling a healthier relationship to develop between the mother and her offspring.

Privatising child care in the home saves the government considerable money. However, we should think carefully about the social consequences. The pressure valve on women who have to cope alone at home can be enormous. Privately, mothers agree that incidences of child abuse in the home are grossly under-reported.

Child care may not be the solution for everybody. However, quality, affordable care should remain a real choice. Women have fought long and hard for their democratic right to make choices about their lives and therefore their place in society. The current push to make women feel guilty about trying to balance raising a family and working outside the home means that this struggle is far from over.