teacher, more
than 50 percent
t of the kids in
• my classes
114 .1h
4" St
came
from homes 11410%
with single
parents," said
Fern Katz, who retired
from the Oak. Park school
system last summer after 29
years of instructing stu-
dents ranging from sixth-
graders to seniors. "Most
often the single parent was
a mother who had her
hands full just putting food
on the table.
"The net result was that
the kids were raising each
other. When you consider
child care for two children
might run $1,100 a month,
the results can be devastat-
ing, especially when women
find out they don't make as
much as men. And God for-
bid if one of the grandpar- .
ents get sick," Ms. Katz
said.
While a host of communi-
ty-sponsored social services
work to assist struggling
families, a lack of funds and
past cutbacks have strained
everything from latch-key
programs to the Head Start
initiative.
The federal government
also is trying to help work-
ing families through the
Family and Medical Leave
Act, which went into effect
Aug. 1 and requires employ-
ers to provide unpaid
parental and medical
leaves to their employees.
But with many single —
and dual — income families
living from paycheck to pay-
check, the act is more a fin-
ger in the dike than any-
thing else. Global competi-
tion, increased health-care
costs and a sluggish econo-
my also are factors working
-against present and poten-
tial company-sponsored
family programs,
But child care and elder
care advocates say that
doesn't mean firms can't
adopt at least a caring atti-
tude. They believe person-
0•• nel directors should have on
hand a list of child and
elderly care centers for
employees to draw upon. In
addition, advocates say,
family counseling services
should be included.
Such referrals may help
families think twice before
running up against disaster.
Consider the real-life Home
Alone couple in suburban
Chicago who left their two
young daughters at home
last December while they
vacationed for nine days in
Acapulco.
The girls have since been
given up for adoption. Yet
during a recent trial to
address more than 60 sepa-
rate charges against the
parents, stress at the office
was cited as one of the main
contributors fueling the cou-
ple's actions.
"It used to be if you lived
on Dexter or Linden (in
Detroit), there was a large
family network to fall back
on," said Wendy Shepherd-
Bates, a child-care and
work-family consultant •in
Walled Lake. "But now with
people living all over the
world, they don't have
access to the same support
system.
"You also have people liv-
ing in air-conditioned
homes. The windows are
Health-care costs
and a sluggish
economy work
against company-
sponsored family
programs.
shut and no one ever gets to
know their neighbors and
there's no neighborhood net-
work.
"So when an emergency
does come up and the child
care falls through, who do
you call? The biggest prob-
lem facing working families
today is how to juggle every-
thing when plans fall
through and the support is
gone," she said.
To help alleviate potential
work and family pressures,
Ms. Shepherd-Bates advises
both employers and employ-
ees to become more pro-
active, such as looking at
accommodating employee
needs before they reach cri-
sis phase.
Wendy
-
Shepherd-Bates
with daughter,
Frannie,
and son,
Jesse
For the company,
whether big or small, it may
mean setting up a child and
elderly care referral service.
Firms also should accom-
modate employee requests
for time off with limited pay
when. a family member
becomes sick.
For the worker, letting a
manager know in advance
of a relative's operation or
even the potential for a
child to catch the chicken
pox will lead to a smoother
transition period when an
emergency does arise.
"If a company gives an
employee an inch, he or she
will give back a mile," Ms.
Shepherd-Bates said.
"Employers should also
allow their employees time
for personal calls to their
children, child-care provider
or nursing home. They may
take five minutes to check
on a child but a half-hour if
they have to sneak into the
copy room to make an out-
side call."
One firm which has been
innovative in accommodat-
ing working families is
Plante &Moran, an
accounting and manage-
ment consulting firm in
Southfield. In 1987, in an
effort to assist accountants
and other employees who
worked weekends during
the busy tax season, the
firm set up a child-care cen-
ter at the office.
"We just believe the
whole person comes to work
and there is a balance
between careers and fami-
lies," said Kristin Brender,
public relations coordinator
for Plante & Moran. "In
1986 we set up the
Parenting Tightrope Action
committee (PTA) to help our
employees with families.
"Not only did we invest in
child-care workers, toys and
nap items for the employees'
children, but we provide a
parenting binder for new
families, a buddy program
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