正文翻譯

UK childcare is collapsing – and forcing mothers back into the home
-Spiralling costs, thanks to Brexit, the cost of living crisis, and government failure, are leaving some parents with no option but to give up work

英國的托兒服務(wù)正在崩潰，迫使母親們回到家里帶小孩
——由于英國脫歐、生活成本危機和政府失職，不斷上升的成本讓一些父母別無選擇，只能放棄工作

(‘I know I’m not the only one who compares my wages with the cost of childcare, and wonders if the stress is worth it.’)

（“我知道我不是唯一一個拿自己的工資和育兒費用做比較的人，我想知道這樣的壓力是否值得。”）
新聞：

Nothing can prepare you for the birth of your first child – the joy, the horror, the total discombobulation, but also the humbling awareness of just how little you knew about the realities of raising children. Tired babies do not, as I had expected, just “nod off”. Nor do all newborns love the car (mine screamed with such ear-shattering persistence we had to stop driving). But ask any expectant parent about the state of British childcare and you will settle upon a seemingly universal understanding: the system is woefully unfit for purpose.

沒有什么能讓你為第一個孩子的出生做好準(zhǔn)備——喜悅、恐懼、完全的混亂，還有你對撫養(yǎng)孩子的現(xiàn)實了解得如此之少的謙卑意識。如我所料，疲憊的嬰兒不會“打瞌睡”。也不是所有的新生兒都喜歡汽車（我的孩子堅持不懈地尖叫，震耳欲聾，我們不得不停止開車）。但是，如果你問任何一位準(zhǔn)父母關(guān)于英國托兒服務(wù)的狀況，你會得出一個看似普遍的理解：這個體系嚴重不符合既定目標(biāo)。

After a Brexit exodus decimated staffing levels in nurseries, the pandemic quietly pushed the early years sector past the point of no return, and this winter promises even more hardship. Deliberate underfunding means providers have little choice but to charge astronomical fees, which have increased at a rate that far outstrips wages, to cover their own sizeable outgoings. And as energy prices rise, so too will costs.

在英國脫歐導(dǎo)致托兒所人員數(shù)量大幅減少后，疫情悄悄將早教部門推到了不可逆轉(zhuǎn)的地步，今年冬天可能還會更加艱難。故意的資金削減意味著醫(yī)療機構(gòu)別無選擇，只能收取天文數(shù)字的費用，而這些費用的增長速度遠遠超過了支付自己可觀支出的工資。隨著能源價格的上漲，成本也會上漲。
原創(chuàng)翻譯：龍騰網(wǎng) http://www.ltaaa.cn 轉(zhuǎn)載請注明出處

Trying to find a nursery place for my daughter this year revealed just how depleted the provision is, with 18-month waiting lists as standard, and some waits so long their lists were closed. Demand far outstrips supply, thanks to a staffing crisis that shows no signs of abating as low-paid workers jump the sinking ship in favour of better pay and less stressful jobs. Between 2021 and 2022, the number of childcare providers in England plummeted by 4,000, and 86% of early years providers say the government funding they receive for three- and four-year-olds does not cover the cost of delivering those places. One nursery owner in the north-east tells me: “I haven’t been able to pay myself since November 2021 … I’ve had to take a second job just so I can live.”

今年，我試著為我女兒找一所托兒所，結(jié)果發(fā)現(xiàn)托兒所的供應(yīng)已經(jīng)非常匱乏，通常需要輪候18個月的時間，有些等待時間太長，以至于名單都排滿了。需求遠遠超過供給，這要歸功于一場沒有任何減緩跡象的人員危機——低薪工人跳槽，轉(zhuǎn)而從事工資更高、壓力更小的工作。在2021年至2022年期間，英格蘭托兒服務(wù)提供者的數(shù)量驟降了4000人，86%的早教服務(wù)提供者表示，他們?yōu)槿龤q和四歲兒童提供的100萬英鎊資金不足以支付提供這些服務(wù)的成本。東北部的一名托兒所老板告訴我：“自2021年11月以來，我一直無法支付自己的工資……為了生活，我不得不做第二份工作?！?br>原創(chuàng)翻譯：龍騰網(wǎng) http://www.ltaaa.cn 轉(zhuǎn)載請注明出處

It doesn’t take much creativity to imagine how this crisis is spilling over into the lives of working mothers. I know I’m not the only one who compares my wages each month with the cost of childcare, and wonders if the stress of juggling both, only to be barely breaking even, is worth it. Nearly three-quarters of part-time workers are women, and 57% of them feel they have no choice but to work part-time.

不難想象，這場危機將如何蔓延到職業(yè)母親的生活中。我知道，我不是唯一一個把每月工資和育兒費用進行比較的人，我在想，在兩者之間兼顧、卻只能勉強維持收支平衡的壓力是否值得。近四分之三的兼職工作者是女性，其中57%的人認為自己別無選擇，只能兼職。

Friends share their own nightmare stories: one in full-time work texts to say her child’s nursery is closing its doors permanently with just a week’s notice due to staffing shortages, leaving her scrambling for childcare cover. Another says their nursery, struggling to cope with rising energy bills, is suddenly charging an extra ￡10 a day for lunch and activities.

朋友們分享了自己的噩夢故事：一位全職工作人員在短信中說，由于人手短缺，她孩子的托兒所將在僅提前一周通知的情況下永久關(guān)閉，這讓她不得不四處找人照顧孩子。另一個孩子說，他們的托兒所為了應(yīng)付不斷上漲的能源賬單，突然每天要多收10英鎊的午餐和活動費用。

But this winter, as household costs continue to rise, things could become even more dystopian. In the past year, the number of women not working in order to look after family has risen by 5% – a trend-bucking increase the likes of which hasn’t been seen for 30 years, with women between 25 and 34 most affected. Put simply, too many women can no longer afford to work. And as the cost of living and energy crises bite, this steady stream of mothers disappearing from the workforce threatens to build to a raging torrent.

但今年冬天，隨著家庭成本繼續(xù)上升，情況可能變得更加反烏托邦。在過去的一年里，為了照顧家庭而不工作的女性數(shù)量上升了5%，這是30年來從未有過的趨勢增長，25歲至34歲的女性受影響最大。簡而言之，太多的女性無法再工作。隨著生活成本和能源危機的影響，不斷有母親退出職場的趨勢可能會形成一股洶涌的洪流。

Florencia is being forced to make a maddening choice between working and staying afloat. She and her husband employ a nanny to look after their two-year-old daughter, who has special needs, while they both work. “With the spike in costs, we can no longer afford [the nanny] so I have decided to take time off,” she tells me.

弗洛倫西亞被迫在工作和維持生計之間做出瘋狂的選擇。她和她的丈夫雇了一名保姆來照顧他們兩歲大有特殊需求的女兒，而他們兩人都在工作?！半S著成本的飆升，我們再也請不起（保姆）了，所以我決定休假，”她告訴我。

Laura, a 39-year-old Canadian who has two children, left her staff job at a top London university this year. After paying for childcare, she says, she “wasn’t even breaking even. It was like, is it even worth working?”

39歲的加拿大人勞拉有兩個孩子，今年她辭去了倫敦一所頂尖大學(xué)的教職。她說，在支付了托兒費之后，她“甚至無法達到收支平衡。我就在想，這值得嗎？”

Lauren, also 39, has been unemployed since she was made redundant during the pandemic. “I can’t afford to pay for a nursery until I get a job, and I can’t seriously look for a job without childcare,” she says. “My husband works, but we’re in our overdraft every month now as things are getting more and more expensive.” She says that her sense of identity has suffered from not “being something other than someone’s mum, or wife”.

勞倫也是39歲，自從大流行期間被裁員以來，她一直處于失業(yè)狀態(tài)。她說：“在我找到工作之前，我負擔(dān)不起托兒所的費用，而如果沒有托兒服務(wù)，我就無法認真找工作。我丈夫有工作，但我們現(xiàn)在每個月都透支，因為物價越來越貴了?！彼f，她的身份感因為“只能是某人的母親或妻子”而受到影響。

These stories should frighten us all – they point to a growing trend of working mothers being pushed by force and en masse back into the home. Too hyperbolic? “I don’t think it’s an exaggeration at all. I think this is exactly what we’re seeing,” says Joeli Brearley, the founder of Pregnant Then Screwed. These are women who want to work but have no viable means of doing so, who are being failed by decades of government shortsightedness. “People still do not grasp this notion that if you invest in the childcare sector, you’re investing in the economy, because it enables people to work,” says Brearley. “What they think is: ‘My taxes are paying for your children.’ And that’s not fair.”

這些故事應(yīng)該讓我們所有人都感到害怕——它們表明，越來越多的職業(yè)母親被強迫返回家庭。覺得太夸張了？“我認為這一點也不夸張。我認為這正是我們所看到的，”“懷孕后就完蛋”的創(chuàng)始人喬里·布雷亞歷說。這些婦女想要工作，但沒有可行的辦法，幾十年來政府的短視使她們失敗?！叭藗?nèi)匀徊焕斫膺@樣一個概念，即如果你投資托兒部門，你就是在投資經(jīng)濟，因為它使人們能夠工作，” 布雷亞歷說?！翱伤麄兿氲膮s是：‘我的稅收被你的孩子給拿走了。’這是不公平的。”

At the end of this month, more than 10,000 families are set to participate in mass protests over political inaction on the issue. And it’s about time. Investing in childcare could boost the annual income of working mothers in the UK by ￡10bn, according to a study by the Centre for Progressive Policy. That translates to an additional 3% in their economic output – surely something even the most fiscally or liberally conservative governments can recognise as a positive. But for now, says Mary-Ann Stephenson of the Women’s Budget Group, “it’s a bleak picture. If women can’t afford childcare they either depend more on informal care from their families, which can lead to older women leaving the workforce, or they can only work part-time reduced hours, or they leave the labour market altogether”.

本月底，超過1萬戶家庭將參加大規(guī)模抗議活動，抗議政府在這一問題上的不作為?？焓菚r候了。進步政策中心的一項研究顯示，投資托兒服務(wù)可能使英國職業(yè)母親的年收入增加100億英鎊。這意味著他們的經(jīng)濟產(chǎn)出將增加3%——當(dāng)然，即使是最錢眼或最自由保守的政府也會認為這是一個積極的因素。但是現(xiàn)在，婦女預(yù)算組織的瑪麗-安·斯蒂芬森說：“這是一幅暗淡的景象。如果婦女負擔(dān)不起托兒費用，她們要么更多地依賴家庭的非正式照顧——這可能導(dǎo)致老年婦女離開勞動力市場，要么就只能減少工作時間，從事兼職工作，要么完全離開勞動力市場?！?/p>

Government proposals to reduce staff-to-child ratios in nurseries as a way to reduce fees are largely unsupported by providers and parents alike. I ask the nursery owner whether it will make any difference for nurseries already operating at a loss. Not a chance, she tells me: “There’s no nursery in the land that’s going to be able to reduce their fees.”

政府提議通過降低托兒所人員與兒童的比例來降低費用，但這在很大程度上沒有得到托兒所服務(wù)提供者和家長的支持。我問托兒所的老板，這是否會對已經(jīng)虧損的托兒所產(chǎn)生影響。不可能，她告訴我：“這片土地上已經(jīng)沒有一個托兒所能夠再降低它們的費用了。”

As more working mothers are pushed to the fringes, the consequences will be felt in the gender pay gap – the monitoring of which is itself at risk. And in the long term, more and more women of retirement age will sleepwalk into poverty without the opportunity to build up healthy pensions during their working years.

隨著越來越多的職業(yè)母親被推到邊緣，其后果將體現(xiàn)在性別薪酬差距上——對這一差距的監(jiān)測本身就面臨風(fēng)險。從長遠來看，越來越多的退休年齡的女性將在渾渾噩噩中陷入貧困，在工作期間沒有機會積累起健康的養(yǎng)老金。
原創(chuàng)翻譯：龍騰網(wǎng) http://www.ltaaa.cn 轉(zhuǎn)載請注明出處

But work is also about identity. It is an anchor to society, a reflection of our self-worth, a life raft of normality when family life threatens to consume us. There’s a reason those chintzy “gin and tonic – mummy’s little helper” signs are so commonplace – a glib expression of just how awful it can be to be a stay-at-home parent. It should no longer be taboo to say that lots of mothers have no desire to stay at home, and that many children benefit from being looked after in organised childcare settings. Generations of women, not hundreds, but millions – from the very youngest, to the very oldest – are being failed. And slowly but surely, we are rolling back the clock on equality.

但工作也關(guān)乎身份認同。它是社會的支柱，是我們自我價值的反映，是當(dāng)家庭生活威脅要吞噬我們時，我們能正常生活的救生筏。這些廉價的“杜松子酒加奎寧水——媽媽的小幫手”的標(biāo)語如此常見是有原因的——這是對全職父母有多糟糕的一種委婉表達。許多母親不想呆在家里，許多孩子從有組織的育兒環(huán)境中受益，這樣的說法應(yīng)該不再是禁忌。一代又一代的婦女，不是幾百人，而是幾百萬人——從最年輕的到最年長的——都被拋棄了。我們正在緩慢而堅定地將平等的時鐘往回撥。