| Summary: | Part of a special issue on the child care crisis facing America. The writer discusses the tensions and dilemmas that arise in child care situations in which parents rely on nannies or housekeepers, in part because such forms of child care are based on deep social inequality between parents and caregivers. One such dilemma involves parents' authority over the caregiver, in that the parents may want to let the caregiver exercise her own judgment and authority, but because there are likely to be class differences between parents and caregivers, there are also likely to be different definitions of quality child care. Another dilemma can arise over parents' and caregivers' efforts to maintain some social distance while still wanting commitments that go beyond obligations of employment. Whereas private forms of child care solve some problems, they have limits. Thus, a move toward a system that provides good child care requires that the fact that private child care solutions cannot solve all social problems be recognized.
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