Caring for Children

As men and women across the country are working longer hours, and families are faced with the painful dilemma of how to adequately care for children, parents from all backgrounds and communities are searching for new options.

New options do exist. With solutions such as job-sharing, flexible work hours, rotating shifts, and telecommunting, people in many communities are succeeding at making time outside of work for other life experiences. A large part of our mission at the ThirdPath is to explore and expand these new options for as many families as possible.

All parents want the very best for their children. All parents try their very hardest to make their children's lives go well. All parents deserve much more support and encouragement than our society currently offers. We at the ThirdPath believe the work parents do is tremendously important, and we want to support you to do as good a job as you can. While we support individual change, we are also committed to change on a larger level. Check out our public policy ideas for a better picture of what we are thinking about how to make this happen.

Listed below are the five models we have found that families use to care for children. The model that you use should be represented here. Each of the models is linked to a story about a family using that combination of childcare and work. We would love to hear what you have chosen or plan to choose in caring for your children. Email us at time4life@thirdpath.org with your story!

We advocate Shared Care as the option of choice, and our resources point towards supporting parents to implement this option in their lives. Of course, all parents, regardless of which model they choose to care for their children, deserve tremendous support and encouragement. No matter which path you follow, we wish you the very best in taking on the very important, rewarding and sometimes daunting task of caring well for your children.

Shared Care
(click to read sample stories) Both parents do the bulk of the childcare, while staying actively engaged in work outside the family. Parents reconfigure work around the needs of family, and share in their involvement with work, home and children. Parents who do Shared Care recognize that children's' needs change over time, and that family solutions need to change over time as a result. Families practicing Shared Care make up an expanding percentage of the U.S parenting population.

One-Parent Flex
(click to read a sample story) One parent works full-time outside the home, while the other flexes his or her work schedule to accommodate caring for the child(ren). One parent is the primary parent; the other serves as back-up. Most often the family uses part-time outside assistance or childcare when the primary parent is working.

Traditional
(click to read a sample story) One parent works full-time outside the home, while the other works full-time caring for the child(ren). Despite its name, just 17% of U.S. families choose this option.

Full-Time Care
(click to read a sample story) Both parents work full-time outside the home, and employ full-time childcare to care for the child(ren) during work hours.

Single Parenting
(click to read a sample story) Single parents balance earning income and caring for children in a variety of ways. Some divorced or separated parents continue to share the responsibilities of caring for their children, while others employ the help of community and extended family to make this solution manageable. Many of the key concepts for Shared Care apply to single parents.