Keeping a job and looking after children

impossible task?

We've just accepted that in Catalonia we are about to change the school year calendar to shorten summer holidays. The debate still goes on, since balancing a quality private life and work is proving to be impossible for most of the families. Childcare, extra activities, help from relatives... all sort of solutions don't seem to be working well enough, since they are either expensive or energy consuming for both the children and people willing to give a hand.
I always thought the British working system was quite flexible and contemplated this issue in a quite balanced way. Unfortunately, in this article one can read that the problems are repeating themselves elsewhere.
With the economic crisis going around and many families having only one member in the working market, models may revert to the old ones: one parent is the "provider" , the other is the "home carer"...the only issue is that the home carer may have to be the man...I don't think in Spain many men are ready for it yet.


Read the full article and reader's comments at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/aug/29/woring-hours-childcare#start-of-comments