Parents with young children need better childcare options

Raising small child is a bittersweet experience for working couples in Shanghai. A survey found that more than half of local parents are often too busy with work to look after their children.

The survey, which polled 2,000 Shanghai families with children under age 12, was conducted by the Youth Research Institute under the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences (SASS) in 2012, SASS said in a press release on Friday.

About 40 percent of the surveyed parents acknowledged that they have left their children alone at home. The same went for infants and toddlers. The survey found that nearly 13 percent of respondents left children under age 3 at home alone.

Staying at home alone is dangerous for children who are too young to take care of themselves. However, in most Chinese cities - Shanghai included, children aren't eligible for kindergarten until they turn 3 years old.

Each year 150,000 to 180,000 babies are born in Shanghai. SASS's statistics show that in 2010, there were 40 local government-run nurseries for children under 3. These nurseries had 8,300 children under age 3 in their care in 2010, only one-third the number in their charge in 2004.

In 2012, Zhang Lili, a member of the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress, proposed that more nurseries be established in this city. Although the proposal won applause from the public, it didn't go anywhere. The number of children in the care of public nurseries in Shanghai fell to 6,000 in 2013.

With space in public nurseries so limited, some parents have sent their children to private nurseries. However, private nurseries are expensive. A private nursery in Pudong New Area charged 2,800 yuan ($448.21) a month to take care of a child, the Shanghai Morning Post reported in 2011. That's no small amount for the average dual-income family. More importantly, many private nurseries have not been approved by the government, and are thus unsupervised, leaving children at risk. Local news media have reported many stories about private nurseries and kindergartens where staff members have abused children.

Cautious parents might opt to take care of the children at home, but they won't get much help from the government. Under Chinese law, a new mother only receives 98 days of maternity leave, so if she wants to stay home and take care of her child, she has no choice but to quit her job. That strains a family's finances.

It also jeopardizes her future career. As the Guangzhou Daily reported in September 2012, many mothers who try to return to work find it difficult to get a good job. Years of staying at home makes them less competitive in the job market.

With no good childcare option, most working couples turn to their parents for help. In 2013, the Shanghai Scientific Child Rearing Base surveyed 800 families in Hongkou district with children under age 3. The survey found that more than 73 percent of local grandparents were the primary caregivers of their grandchildren. But more grandparents are reluctant to help look after their grandchildren, especially if they live far away. The survey suggested that nearly half of senior citizens were tired of looking after young children.

The government remains in the best position to provide childcare to working parents. It made an attempt years ago by setting up more than 700 childcare service stations across the city. Unfortunately, almost all of the stations only hold activities for children on weekends, when most parents don't work.

Until parents have more safe and viable options for childcare, this problem will persist.