It has been simmering below the surface for decades and can be traced back to President Richard M. Nixon’s 1971 veto of federally funded universal child care, which created our bifurcated approach to child care that considers the needs of some and not others.
I found it interesting that they cited the fear of “middle class white women” entering the workforce as a reason for the veto. Both my birth mom and step mom worked. I have conscious memories of both of them working when I was 5 (1967).
The middle class white women DID enter the workforce. And their kids (those of us born between 1960 and 1975) raised ourselves. Some of us were better at it than others; the others fed into the juvenile crime rates that were sky high from 3-6 every afternoon.
I’m really kind of surprised that more psych and sociologist types have not done more research into the Latch Key Kid Generation and how we turned out.