The Help

 

Last night we watched the movie 'The Help'. A movie about the racial divide set in Jackson, in the US, during the 1960's. One of the themes resolved around children. How black maids were surrogate mothers who brought up many white children.

In one scene a maid changes a child's nappy as one of the first tasks in the morning. Only to find it is the same nappy which she had left the child in prior to leaving work. The child most probably was in its own excrement for hours.

It reminded me of a story of a friend of mine. Hers was a similar story working in child care facilities. Parents would drop their children off at 7am only to pick them up again at 7pm. It was not unusual for her to find the same nappy on the child as she had put on prior to pick up.

We have delibarately lived a bit leaner so that there would be always one of us around for our girls. Some people in our society don't have that option, both parents have to work. The cost of living and huge mortgages are the normal reasons, for others they are single parents. Childcare is the only option. Yet for many it is very much a consumeristic choice. Lifestyle is to important and to live leaner is to hard.

It makes me wonder how this generation of child care children will turn out? Will they suffer from some form of attachment disorders. I find it strange that governments subsides child care when the effects on children are relatively unknown. A policy where children have no real say. It makes me wonder why we have children if we are not prepared to parent them?