Unit 7: Family Responsibilities
Lesson 2: Child Care
OBJECTIVES
Identify at least five people or places that can take care of your children.
Practice interviewing potential child-care providers.
Practice what to do to find child care on an emergency basis.
Discuss issues relating to taking time off work to care for a sick child.
Discuss how to handle family problems while at work.
MATERIALS
Child Care: Relative Care
Child Care: Questions to Ask a Provider
Summary of The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993 (Appendix F)
SUPPLEMENTAL RESOURCES
Child Care Success: For You
and Your Kids – A $10.95 book from the Preschool Enrichment Team
(413-736-3900). This is an excellent resource.
INSTRUCTIONAL FORMAT
A major barrier to keeping a job is
not being able to find quality child care. During this lesson, trainers should
take students through all the issues a parent or guardian needs to consider to
keep consistent child care. Part of the lesson will require the student to
practice getting child care in an emergency situation.
Discuss the three basic types of child care: relative care, family day care, and center care. See the
handouts that provide this information.
Have each student come up with a list of five people
or places that will provide day care. This may require individual help and
work done outside of the classroom. Each provider on the list will need to be
contacted to ensure the availability and cost of using that service.
Practice interviewing child care
providers (trainers). During some of the role-plays, the trainers should
provide information that should discourage the parent from choosing that
person or center. Some red flags include indicating you are not licensed,
there is no back-up if you are sick, you take six weeks of vacation each year,
or cannot provide information on specific activities. At the end of the
interview, ask the student if he would choose you as a provider. Discuss with
him whether he made a good decision based on the information you provided.
Practice scenarios in which the parent would need to come up
with child care in an emergency. The trainer will play the various providers.
Sometimes the first option will work. Sometimes the trainers should take the
student through many options until they find a person who can take care of the
child. Provide the following scenarios:
You have the day off, but your boss called you in on an
emergency basis. Find someone to take care of your kids.
It is 10 minutes before you leave for work and drop off you
kids. Your cousin is sick and cannot take care of your kids. Find someone to
take care of them.
You are at work and your day-care provider calls. She says
that her father just died and that you need to come get your child in the
next hour. You can't leave work, so you have to call to find someone to get
your child and take care of her. (Don't forget to ask your boss if you can
take a few minutes to get this arranged.)
Discuss balancing taking time off work to tend to a child's
illness. Most jobs allow a parent to take sick time to care for a sick child.
But, there are a limited number of days an employee can take. Every time a
parent uses a sick day to care for a sick child, that is one less day he can
take if the child is sicker at a later time or the parent gets sick at a later
date. Discuss what are some times when a parent definitely needs to take off –
child is running a high fever, child needs an at home treatment, or child is
too young to be left alone and too sick to be brought to day care or school.
This is an area that will require decision making on the part of the parent.
Ask students to provide different situations in which they took time off or
did not take time off when their child was sick. Ask how sick the child was,
and then have the group discuss and decide what they would do in that
situation. Finish this discussion by summarizing these points no matter what
decision is made.
If you're in doubt whether to take your child to the doctor,
take him. It is better to be safe than sorry.
As soon as you know you will miss work because of a child's
illness, call your boss.
Follow your doctor's recommendation about what kind of
attention your child needs. If she can go back to school or day care, bring
her there and go in to work.
If your child needs to be cared for at home, do that. If you
can get a trusted family member to take over for you, go in to
work.
The most important thing is that the parent take time to
communicate with work, communicate with the doctor, and communicate with
other caregivers.
Discuss the Family Medical Leave
Act (Appendix F). This will be discussed in other sections as well. The
information that applies to this lesson refers to being able to take an
extended leave due to a child's illness.
Discuss how to handle child responsibilities at work. It is not appropriate for parents or guardians to bring children to work or have children visit. If a child needs to visit you at work, get permission from your supervisor. It should not be a social visit. Emergencies happen to families. There are very few bosses who are not going to understand if you have to leave because a child has been injured or sick. However, if this happens frequently, your boss is going to want to know if you are working for the emergency service or for her. Again, the important thing is communication. Don't leave your job site for 30 minutes to handle a crisis over the phone. Go and talk to your boss and tell him what is up. He may just tell you to leave and take care of the problem. You are no good to an employer if you are thinking about a loved one. The important thing to avoid is spending your work time socializing and doing non-emergency things for your children (ordering things from a catalog, calling your son's coach to talk about his playing time, etc.)
SIGNS OF GENERALIZATION
The students have multiple
options for child care. The students report that they had to use back-up care,
and it worked. They are taking care of family matters, and responsibly taking a
minimum amount of time off. When they are taking time off, these are truly
emergency situations.
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