Helping Kids Handle ‘Day-Care Dilemma’

There is a point in the excellent article “Day-Care Dilemma” that needs some clarification. Providing quality care for our nation’s future decision-makers is certainly an area of utmost concern and a complex problem.

However, we are not fortunate enough to be experiencing a dropping birth rate, as suggested by Audre Engelman of the Women Lawyers’ Assn.

Because of the “echo-boom” and other mitigating factors, Los Angeles County, for example, has gained three times as many people during the 1980s as during the 1970s, an average of 120,000 a year.

This growth is attributable, first, to an increase in births, and only second to new immigrants.

Result? The sheer numbers mean there is vastly increased pressure on an already fragile system of child care . . . and vastly increased pressure on an already fragile planetary environment.

Prognosis? The future is hanging in the balance as we dare to face the potential significance of universally considering a small-family goal.

CAROL BENSON HOLST, Glendale