Thanks for this. I found this part very curious as well: "The report further reveals a concerning correlation between caregiving and overall well-being, leaving 90% of parents losing sleep, 80% crying (increasing to 90% for moms specifically), 75% feeling a sense of dread, 71% experiencing health issues, and 29% even considering suicide or self-harm due to the challenges of finding, managing, and affording care."
I dug into parental well-being studies for my book and nothing came close to being this bleak.
Overall the methodology just seemed hmmmm in this Care.com report.
"The report finds that the average parent who responded is responsible for five loved ones, resulting in the management of five different care arrangements, yet nearly half (48%) say that they still don’t have enough help." Pets are included here...
Over the years I have been pitched many studies from profit-making companies like Care.com that have a financial interest in a certain outcome...I've grown increasingly skeptical. And it is a shame because we need good data on care, and parents/caregivers have needs that aren't being met. But this doesn't get us closer to clarity.
Yeah that does seem really, really high! I believe it was Pew who found that stress symptoms were more common in lower-income parents. But given that 30% of this sample hired nannies, it probably skewed much higher income than a general sample. That doesn’t make their distress fake, but does make me wonder about methodology, sampling, question phrasing etc.
I’m also skeptical of including pets. It’s true that animal cruelty is a crime, but you can crate a dog and leave them home alone overnight - you can’t do that to babies! It’s a very different sort of care and a very different subject of care.
You know the funny thing about the FSA is that it SHOULD be close to $18k. It was created in 1986 and set at $5k. Adjusting just for CPI inflation puts you at $14k. If we used childcare and health inflation, it’d probably be approaching $30k.
Thanks for this. I found this part very curious as well: "The report further reveals a concerning correlation between caregiving and overall well-being, leaving 90% of parents losing sleep, 80% crying (increasing to 90% for moms specifically), 75% feeling a sense of dread, 71% experiencing health issues, and 29% even considering suicide or self-harm due to the challenges of finding, managing, and affording care."
I dug into parental well-being studies for my book and nothing came close to being this bleak.
Overall the methodology just seemed hmmmm in this Care.com report.
"The report finds that the average parent who responded is responsible for five loved ones, resulting in the management of five different care arrangements, yet nearly half (48%) say that they still don’t have enough help." Pets are included here...
Over the years I have been pitched many studies from profit-making companies like Care.com that have a financial interest in a certain outcome...I've grown increasingly skeptical. And it is a shame because we need good data on care, and parents/caregivers have needs that aren't being met. But this doesn't get us closer to clarity.
Yeah that does seem really, really high! I believe it was Pew who found that stress symptoms were more common in lower-income parents. But given that 30% of this sample hired nannies, it probably skewed much higher income than a general sample. That doesn’t make their distress fake, but does make me wonder about methodology, sampling, question phrasing etc.
I’m also skeptical of including pets. It’s true that animal cruelty is a crime, but you can crate a dog and leave them home alone overnight - you can’t do that to babies! It’s a very different sort of care and a very different subject of care.
You know the funny thing about the FSA is that it SHOULD be close to $18k. It was created in 1986 and set at $5k. Adjusting just for CPI inflation puts you at $14k. If we used childcare and health inflation, it’d probably be approaching $30k.