Comments on: Round-up: Math and Motherlode

By: ARC

ARC — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 20:25:47 +0000

In reply to Laura.

I’m sure it’s self-selecting, in all cases, right? I mean, one parent is choosing not to work (if they have that luxury).

I think this is one of those things that’s so individualized on what a family can take with respect to financial loss, time juggling, etc.

By: Laura

Laura — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 20:19:44 +0000

In reply to ARC. @ARC- I've definitely seen studies, too, where women with three children are less likely to be in the workforce than women with two. But part of this may be self-selecting. I don't know how you'd ever get around that. Maybe a study of workforce participation by women who had a third kid accidentally.

By: ARC

ARC — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 17:53:34 +0000

In reply to Cara Marcano.

@Cara – I remember seeing a study quoted somewhere that women were more likely to drop out of the workforce with each subsequent child past 1. Partly because of the cost of childcare and partly because of all the extra work.

In our (expensive) area, infant daycare is $2000/mo for full time and you don’t get much of a price break for multiple kids in the same center – maybe 10% or something, though the cost decreases a bit as they get older.

A nanny for one is around $20-25/hour, increasing marginally with additional kids. But I would agree with you – I think once your kid is 3.5 or 4, you’d need to pay for some kind of preschool, too even if it’s only part-time.

By: Cara Marcano

Cara Marcano — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 00:12:13 +0000

reading ATM and the chapter on marginal cost of kids.. one idea I don’t agree with is that the childcare costs are lower or marginally lower with 3 versus 2 .. it seems our assumption for this is that a nanny is cheaper than daycare/preschool etc. which is t rue but it can’t be said that a 3 or 4 or pre public school-aged child benefits from a nanny as much as say a school type program in daycare or that nanny type care for a less than one year old would suffice for a four year old.. most folks end up paying daycare 3x for three or daycare/preschool for one and 2 and nanny and/or daycare for #3. I do see how 3 kids would also threaten to put primary parent out of paid workforce and would be curious about stats on this.. like what percentage of moms of 2 kids are sahms versus percentage of moms w 3 who are sahms. I could see how from 3 to 4 and 4 to 5 and the overall argument other than for daycare or childcare is good..

By: ARC

ARC — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 03:12:51 +0000

First, thanks for the shout out! I am lucky that in my field, part-time work is financially viable, even when figuring in childcare and other “costs” for me to work (not to mention that I just like it.)

I just finished reading 168 Hours and while I see your POV on working part-time, I think maybe you overlook the motivations/expectation of a lot of us who choose this path.

I definitely agree that it’s a hit to the career – my promotion path is sloooow, if not stalled entirely, until I get back to full-time work. But honestly, right now, I don’t care. I am doing work I enjoy that’s valuable to my team/company, financially good for my family, and I’m staying current in my field.

And I get to spend whole days with my daughter – that relaxed pace is very different from what we’d have if I worked full time (my field/company is very much an “on all the time” culture, so part-time really ratchets down that expectation).

I wrote a post here about how I negotiated the part-time gig, and also what I do to make it work for everyone:
http://womentech.wordpress.com/2011/10/13/your-dream-schedule-in-a-tech-company-it-can-be-done-four-steps-to-find-the-schedule-you-want/