Ooze, plus politics

We're keeping Dutch out of daycare today, because she is covered in slime. She's oozing mucous from her eyes as well as nose, and coughing like she plans to dislodge a lung. She seems to feel okay, and ordinarily we'd cross our fingers and treacherously leave her at daycare anyway, but they've had some amazing outbreaks lately (diarrhea, vomiting, pneumonia, pinkeye, mysterious rashes, etc.), and they've been sending home cranky notes telling parents to KEEP THEIR SICK KIDS AT HOME. So... I'm taking a sick day, because Cook's Mondays are always booked full up.

Cook and I were just talking the other day about the Kaiser (yay Portland!) childcare program during WWII - here's a quote from some totally random webpage :

In addition to the Federal sponsorship of child care during World War II, a unique program began in Portland, Oregon in 1943. The Kaiser shipyards opened a child care center at the entrance of each of their two shipyards. In building the centers, they hoped to reduce the rate of absenteeism among their working mothers. Henry Kaiser built the centers, which were the world's largest child care centers and were in operation 24 hours a day. These centers had a nurse on site for children who were ill, and also provided hot meals for mothers to take home with them. The centers were models of child-centered construction, built around a courtyard with wading pools. The playrooms branching off of the courtyards had large windows and window seats that allowed children to watch the construction taking place in the yards. Cost of the care was shared by parents and the Kaiser company. In the two years they were open they served 3,811 different children (Gordon & Browne, 1996).

How awesome does that sound? Today I could drop Dutch off at the childcare infirmary, and in the afternoon I could pick her up along with a delicious hot dinner.

Hmm.. maybe we could implement some kind of universal daycare system that included care for sick kids. No parent would have to take a sick day from work to care for a sick kid. I'm not even asking for hot dinners here. Just think of the savings to the nation through keeping the workforce working... come on, presidential candidates!

So I went to check out the candidates' websites.

• I am delighted to find that Barack Obama, if elected, will PERSONALLY care for Dutch! - "Obama will also provide affordable and high-quality child care to ease the burden on working families."
• Hillary Clinton will not provide that personal touch, but she will also somehow deliver childcare services unto the people - "...she will invest heavily in proven strategies to get all children ready for school, including...Quality child care and Head Start."
• John McCain's website has nothing on childcare. Not even vague platitudes (see above). Gosh, I guess I won't be voting Republican this year.

Anyway, I'm not getting my hopes up. But maybe tomorrow Dutch will be a little less disgusting, and I can get back to work. I sure am glad I don't have a job that will fire me for taking time off to care for my child.