Interesting.

Australia is so spread out, I wonder if this is a problem all around the country. Its population density overall probably factors in too.

It was hard to tell from the article, wasn’t it? It sounded to me as if it was harder for young workers to find help in the sparser populated areas.

It never ceases to amaze me, the low, low price some parents are willing to pay for the care of their children. In another lifetime, I worked for an agency that provided support and training to home-based child care providers. Parents would nickel and dime (or just flat out not pay) and otherwise take advantage of the women who nurtured their *small* children 4-10 hours a day. And then they’d drive off in a $400 a month car payment.

Twelve years ago when I used to babysit, I watched a woman’s 9 year old daughter for $2.00 an hour. This wasn’t part of the deal, but her disturbed 13 year old son was also always there (”but you don’t have to watch him!”). I loved the time when he shot his sister in the face with a beebee gun. I put up with a lot of crap for that job because I was too nice. But when the mom (who told me, long after I’d agreed to $2/hr (8 hours a day), that she sometimes brought home 5 grand a month from her job as a car saleswoman) started hinting to me that there was an old lady a few apartments over who was willing to watch her daughter for $1 an hour, I suddenly grew a spine and said, “Well, that’s a bargain, isn’t it?” And she never called me to babysit again.

Oh, and I can’t help but wonder if the low value for childcare has anything to do with the fact that most providers are women. Seriously, would anyone expect a grown man to look after their infant or toddler for $20 a day? Here is a link to a suggested range of salaries for au pairs.

Workers in the childcare industry do seem to really struggle, and some of the worst stories I’ve heard are these sort of nanny-abuse situations in which someone works 24/7 for a ridiculously low amount.

I think the au pair or nanny situation can be particularly troubling because of the imbalance in power between a white thirtysomething mom (I’m making this up, of course) and a twenty-year-old nanny or the mom and a nanny who doesn’t speak English. There’s always room for abuse when the difference in power is that substantial.