Someone wrote in [personal profile] ysabetwordsmith 2021-05-26 03:41 am (UTC)

Re: Well ...

[Snark] America, land of No Free Childcare!

$10/hr x 24 x 2 = $480 for a paid sitter over the weekend. Unpaid would likely require a relative or a friend who has also parented small children /and/ who does not have a job (such as retail) that would require weekend hours.

I used to volunteer with an adult education class (with a rather informal group culture). Students arrainging for individual childcare would be difficult for many reasons (social, monetary, linguistic/cultural...). It was usually easier to have folks bring in their kids and then sort it out in various ways, depending on age and number and intrests of the kids:

- a tiny baby can stay right with mom (or sometimes dad), someone else can watch for a few minutes if the parent has to step out

- a few younger kids can color, or run around the room, or whatever, with varying folks keeping an eye out

- an individual kid can be entertained with a topic of interest (art, science) or given someone's phone to watch an educational tv show or play a game. (Older kids being entertained thusly may require less frequent intervention than younger ones, unless they are being directly taught a skill.)

I think that there was only one case where it would have been flat-out impossible for someone to bring their kids to the actual classroom, and we worked out an accommodation so they could still get the neccesary information. (Long story.)

People were also occasionally asked to keep contagious kids at home until they were no longer contagious.

...and we did have someone be all disapproving about someone bringing an energetic (cheerful! friendly! polite for her age!) preschooler. But none of the rest of us cared, beyond being irritated at the disapproving person.

If we required childcare during class, half the students - mostly the women - would disappear. And honestly, a happy kid who isn't screaming or hitting people isn't a problem.

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