Child Care: Looking Beyond ‘Baby Sitting’

Laurels to Lynn Smith for the first accurate and insightful article anywhere on the realities of child care (“Crisis in Child Care: A Self-Defeating Cycle?” Feb. 17).

All this talk in the media lately about a shortage of child care as a dilemma for even upper-income families shows an incredible lack of understanding. Yes, there is a shortage of good care and care givers, but for upper-income parents it is a dilemma easily solved by paying a living wage to highly skilled and undervalued people.

It is true that child care “looks simple, but is not.” There is nothing more complex than teaching a 2-year-old to share a cookie.

There is no more important work in our society than teaching the next generation its values, shaping its intellect, developing either a positive or negative sense of self-esteem and establishing patterns to relating to others. It is not, to quote Robert Reich, “baby sitting.”

Children spend more time with their caregivers than their parents. It is a serious subject and one The Times did an excellent job of covering.

SANDRA BURUD, president

Burud & Associates

Child Care Benefits Consultants

Pasadena