Too old for child care? Too young for self-care?

Abstract

Issues of work/family conflict and child care have been addressed mainly with regard to families with young children. When children advance to middle school at age ten or eleven, families usually must make new after-school arrangements, in a context of limited options and lack of consensus about appropriate care. Based on interviews with thirty-six preteens and with forty-two of their working-class through upper-middle-class parents in a California city, this paper examines their negotiations about the after-school hours. The transition to middle school entailed an abrupt decline in school-based care resources and school-to-parent communication and emboldened most of the preteens to assert more autonomy. Some working families pieced together complicated plans for after-school coverage; others slipped into "self-care" arrangements, usually despite parents' misgivings. In analyzing ideological and structural factors that affect the negotiations, I employ the concepts growing-up schedule and care reduction schedule. Four short case studies illustrate how preteens and parents tried to speed up or slow down these schedules. Proposing the concept of an optimal care mix, I discuss how middle schools and their communities can become more responsive to the needs of working families.