Caregiver Monitoring of Children in Public Places, Research Paper Example

Missing and lost children are a topic of considerable interest in the news and across the general population. One aspect of child safety is a parent or caregiver monitoring of children in public places. Improper childcare can cause many problems and troubles for caregivers and parents that may result in some illness, unfavorable incidents or even child’s death. The observation of parents and caregivers’ monitor children’s location and activities may be useful to prevent the negative consequences of improper childcare.

The problem of childcare is topical nowadays: “The number of working parents – including single-parent families with both parents employed – is climbing, creating an ever-growing need for quality child care” (Lynn, 2006). There are many examples of improper childcare in people’s daily life; one can meet them everywhere: at schools, in parks, in a restaurant, in the airport, etc. The observation of parent and caregiver monitoring of children was conducted to understand the main reasons of this phenomenon in public places.

The services of caregivers are popular and can have low prices: “Child-care services range from small homebased operations to large commercial centers and can be started with an investment of as little as a few hundred dollars” (Lynn, 2006). Nevertheless, the observations of caregivers can show that there is another side of the coin. An employed single mother asked a caregiver to look after her son of nearly five years. A caregiver is a young woman with insufficient experience in child caring, but she positions herself as a quite experienced specialist. The son’s mother works while the caregiver looks after the child. Unfortunately, mistakes of inexperienced caregivers may cause obvious problems for both mother and a caregiver. The caregiver is sitting on the bench; the child is playing with an air-balloon. The phone call distracted the attention of the woman, and she forgot the child for five minutes, who run for the balloon following the wind.  It was enough for the caregiver to lose the boy and miss the chance to control the situation. The child’s attention was captured by the balloon, and as a result, the boy injured his knee when fell down on the asphalt. The mother will not be unsatisfied; she will not address to this caregiver anymore.

Another example of improper childcare can be the following. There are many people in the park, that is why to lose a child here will not be a problem. A grandmother with a stick is walking with the girl of nearly four years down the alley. The girl is remarkably cheerful, active and full of energy. The grandmother is tired and stops to rest for couple minutes, while the girl is rushing all over other children. She meets her age mate – a boy of about six years, – and starts playing with him. The old lady lost the child out of view and began calling her and asking to come back, but the girl can not hear – she is far away from the grandmother. The situation is quite dangerous, because the girl may be lost and get into some troubles. Nevertheless, it is exceptionally convenient for parents to ask a grandmother to look after the child when they are busy. As some researches show, “…few families have the luxury of having an aunt or grandmother nearby to pitch in with childcare assistance” (Clarke-Stewart & Allhusen, 2005).

There are such situations when even an experienced caregiver can be confused. A caregiver and a child are in a museum. A nosy and inquisitive boy sticks to the window of glass with an exhibit and starts knocking into the glass. Under pressure, the window is cracking, and a small piece of glass gets to the boy’s eye. The boy should be examined by a doctor who can save him from possible consequences of this incident. The problem is the following: neither the caregiver nor other people know about nursing and medical aid. The only chance to save a child is to wait for a doctor that can take some period of time. The caregiver is shocked; the boy is crying. If a caregiver would know how to help the child, he would not have been so injured.

One can face with improper childcare even within the family of the child. A mother and a father are sitting with their child in a restaurant. The lively parent’s conversation in a nosy and crowded place makes the parents distract from the girl. The girl is playing with a fork and starts disturbing another girl in the restaurant. One careless move of the fork and everyone can hear another’s girl crying who is pointing on the parents’ girl. The parents’ improper child care, ill-breeding and impolite behavior of the girl caused the problems.

Everyone knows how dangerous accidents happen on traffic. Sometimes, there are such incidents when a child has high chances to be the victim of traffic. A young mother with her small child was in a hurry because she did not want to miss a chance to meet a friend who was on another side of the road. The road was without any cars at first sight, and she expected to run across it with her daughter. They did not pay attention to the red traffic light and started moving quickly. Sudden stream of cars confused and feared her, and she began rushing among the swerving and moving cars, risking her own life and her child’s. There was a happy end, but the risk to get into a traffic accident was extremely high.

The authors of the book “What We Know about Childcare” commented the necessity of proper childcare in the modern society:

“Parents are at the core of any hope of better childcare for the future. More than anyone else they know their children best, understand their needs and characteristics, and must be their strongest advocates. For these reasons, all parents must become educated consumers and demand reasonable childcare for their children” (Clarke-Stewart & Allhusen, 2005).

Proper childcare is not only parents’ or caregivers’ duty, but also the local authorities’. Andrew Kendrick researched the problem of disabled children with residential child care in her book: ”Local authorities should actively support parents to keep in touch with disabled children in residential settings and support children to return home…” (Kendrick, 2008).

The observation showed five examples of parent and caregiver monitoring of children in public places. The result is obvious: everyone, who looks after a child, need to be well-informed about the childcare. There are many organizations that can professionally help in child caring. In spite of the majority of the childcare centers, no one substitute parents. In this context, specific training and courses for parents may help in proper childcare.

References

Clarke-Stewart, A., & Allhusen, V. D. (2005). What We Know About Childcare. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Kendrick, A. (Ed.) (2008). Residential Child Care: prospects and challenges. London (UK): Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Lynn, J. (2006). Start Your Own Child-Care Service. Irvine, CA: Entrepreneur Media Inc.