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Round-the-Clock Demand
January 20, 2012
Caring is the ultimate competitive advantage.
-Ron Kendrick
"Day care is slowly becoming night care in today's economy, as parents work ever longer days, take on second jobs, and accept odd shifts to make ends meet," reports Sabrina Tavernise in a recent New York Times article (January 15, 2012). She continues...

"About 40 percent of the American labor force now works some form of nonstandard hours, including evenings, nights, weekends, and early mornings, according to Harriet B. Presser, a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland.  That share is expected to grow with the projected expansion of jobs in industries like nursing, retail, and food service, which tend to require after-hours work.

"At the same time, working hours are less predictable than they once were. 'There’s a greater variability and irregularity of schedules,' said Lonnie Golden, a professor of economics and labor studies at Pennsylvania State University.  'In surveys, more and more people are no longer able to specify a beginning or end of the workday.'

"Yet for years it has been a frustrating reality for parents that child care services have failed to keep pace with the changing workday, with many centers still keeping a rigid 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. schedule.   Experiments with nighttime care have come and gone over the years, but lingering ambivalence about the concept led most centers to deem it financially untenable."






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Comments (2)

Displaying All 2 Comments
Mary Ellen Martel · January 20, 2012
United States


I am bothered by the statement in this article that providers are "ambivalent" about extended hours. I am director of a center licensed for 49 children. We are open hours that accommodate most work schedules. We are open on all but the most basic holidays and during snowstorms, opening our doors to school age children whose parents need care when the schools don't open or close early. We have sincerely looked at the possibility of offering "after hours" care ~ later in the evening or on weekends. The numbers of people who have expressed a need for that care have not been enough to cover our payroll costs. It is not a matter of ambivalence. It is a matter of keeping the doors open and the bills paid.

Jackie McCormick · January 20, 2012
P.E.A.C/E. Inc. Head Start
Jamesville, NY, United States


I have said for years that there needed to be a 24 hour facility that parents could take their children to. If I had the financial ability I wpuld have already done this.



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