Today I want to address an often unmentioned angle of the “delegation phenomenon” – that is, the trend in this country where most mothers of young children are handing their tots over to others to tend most the day.  Real mothering costs a lot more than other current options, and Americans are downright cheap.  Why else do you think it is estimated like 80% of Christians have their children in free public school?

There are many pressures causing mothers to delegate even babies to others.  First, you have the fleshy desire of most parents for “trophy kids.”  Many want to have kids just because that is just something they feel entitled to in life, not because they have an eternal zeal for raising progeny. 

Next, wanting little Einsteins, they feel attracted to preschools that have been remarketed as competitive tot universities.

Then a strong undercurrent to delegating children comes from basic human nature of not wanting to put in a lot of hard work with no pay and little thanks.  Why give up a salary or doing something else during the day?  Modern mothers often feel changing diapers, for example, is a job for an underclass of women or someone with child education credits.  Little does she realize that a child bonds with those who lovingly take care of his basic needs.

If there is a father in such a family, he usually does not value his wife staying home with the children, does not spend enough time with the family himself or does not give his wife needed breaks. Many moms I talk with use the preschool or nanny as a way to get some breaks.
With the unpopularity of biblical discipline, even very young children start ruling over their parents. Exasperated mothers often choose preschool over spanking.  But while delegating an unruly child to an institution brings instant peace to the home, it covers up the problem which comes home to roost later on, like in the teen years.

But one facet of this delegation problem that few mention is that there are forces in this country that are making dumping young children into the laps of others very economical. 

I met a young mother the other day with a baby and a preschool aged child.  Finding out I was new to the area and that I had six children, she enthusiastically told me that I was in great luck because our state is a universal preschool state, and I could put all of them in the state financed preschool, even my 10 month old twins, for free!

“Why would I do that?” I asked her, explaining, “I want to BE with my kids.”  To which I just got this blank stare. 

Besides free preschool, there is also the tidal wave of cheap, black-market nannies available in many communities.  In this country, it used to be just the wealthy who were tempted to have their kids raised by what they used to call “nurses”.  Now I often meet lower middle class people who hire illegal immigrants to mind their children. 

Motherhood is exhausting, believe me, I know it.  We have six kids and do all our own housework, yard work, meals, etc.  But we have never let the fact that we were one of the poorest families stop us.  That the state or an undocumented worker will watch our children for free or cheap does not appeal at all to us. 

I know that the heart of the biblical homeschool movement in this country is made up of families like ours, who rely on garage sales and Ebay to cloth our kids and get most of our curriculum.  We differ from mainstream America in having the conviction that Deuteronomy 6 means we and not someone else should be the ones changing the diapers – and thus forging a bond with our children which can help lead them to Christ and be lights in a dark world.