There’s an interesting review out this morning by our very own Andrea Mrozek (yes, Andrea has a life outside PWPL) on a British childcare report Canadians ought to know about. So many aspects of the childcare debate are neglected – including this one, which I had never thought about before reading Maggie Gallagher’s most excellent Enemies of Eros:

This is a perfectly obvious question and yet it is one we seldom ask. Where are the warmhearted substitute caregivers going to come from in a society which increasingly declines to celebrate children, child rearing, and mothering? Values are funny things. We cannot insistently warn women that childbearing is a potential trap and childraising a degrading preoccupation, and then expect the day care industry to be flooded with eager, commited, emotionally-giving workers.

Indeed. If we keep telling girls and young women that only social retards think staying home (or in a home-like setting) to care for snotty toddlers all day is a fun and worthwhile activity, where are we going to get the high-quality “educators” we need to make a national day care system be more than just a reasonably safe-ish place to park your kids?

The quote above is on page 102 of Enemies of Eros. The book was published in 1989, and it rings terrifyingly true in 2008. I only read it recently and if you haven’t read it yet I heartily encourage you to do so.

[cross-posted to PWPL]