Working parents send their kids to daycare out of necessity, it’s not a matter of being popular. Two working parents is also a necessity for many economically. Not everybody has the income and thus the convenience of having a stay at home parent.
In your words, this is a failure of the parent, but I disagree.
The cost of childcare services per child has a fairly hard floor on it. Working class families tend to have more kids in the US. Thus, the total expenses of childcare approx nets out around the same for a working class family as for an upper-middle class family.
But the "higher class" family has a lot of extra income to be earned by having two parents working vs one. So its often bad economics for a poorer family to work two jobs and pay for regulated childcare. And good economics for a rich one.
And this is how it works out in reality too. I checked a bunch of census stats, and the percentage of children in childcare facilities in the US rises steadily with family income. (interestingly enough, the percentage of children watched by their grandparents also rises steadily with family income too)
danielvf|3 years ago
But the "higher class" family has a lot of extra income to be earned by having two parents working vs one. So its often bad economics for a poorer family to work two jobs and pay for regulated childcare. And good economics for a rich one.
And this is how it works out in reality too. I checked a bunch of census stats, and the percentage of children in childcare facilities in the US rises steadily with family income. (interestingly enough, the percentage of children watched by their grandparents also rises steadily with family income too)