Houston Day Care Center Fire Kills 3 Children : NPR

Do you see this? Do you see it?! Take a good look. This is America’s middle class, gasping its dying breaths. Read this story. How many parents, every fucking day, leave their children someplace sub-par because it’s all they can afford? Do you think that ANYONE would choose, as their ideal situation, a home daycare center with a single 22-year-old (!!!) alone with 7 (SEVEN) infants and very young toddlers?!

(As a basis of comparison, the pre-K program my 4-year-old attends has two teachers—a lead and an assistant—for his class of 8 - 10. Toddlers have a higher ratio. Infants, even higher.)

I reflect every day, especially these days, on how fortunate I am. I am fortunate, so very fortunate, that the person I am raising my children with happens to be adept at something lucrative. If, for instance, he could only command the same salary that I, (someone I like to think of as talented and hard-working, not to mention that graduate degree, heh) used to make pre-children? We would have very few choices for childcare, and we would both have to work very hard to afford those few undesirable options. We would be stuck.

But I am not in that situation. My husband is a web developer, and a good one, so my children did not burn to death in a home daycare run by a 22-year-old. What did she charge per child? The lowest amount I can think of—$30 a day, less than half of what I pay for an older, less expensive child—would still net her around a respectable $50k a year, which is quite a decent number in Texas—probably more than a 22-year-old can make in any other honest way. More than I made at my last job, using that graduate degree. But not enough to compel her to learn to properly use a fire extinguisher, or to hire someone else to help out so she could take bathroom breaks without leaving SEVEN children alone. The desire for what more money can bring is funny that way, it confuses your morals.

This is what a dying middle class looks like. It looks like parents who love their children every bit as much as I do, who are, like me, doing the very best they can for them. Not people who want or expect a handout, or people who are neglectful or lazy. Just regular people who are trying their best. It’s just that, these days, their best only buys a crap daycare. And dead children. My reality, and probably yours too, is better only by happenstance.

We all deserve better than this.

My awesome wife just made me a little teary at work.

Please read this.