Dr. Kezban Çelik's Article Titled "Labor Experiences of Childcare Givers in Türkiye on the Axis of Relation to Parents"
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Prof. Dr. Kezban Çelik's article, co-authored with Dr. Fatma Umut Beşpınar and Clinical Psychologist Ecem Erten, titled "Labor Experiences of Childcare Givers in Türkiye on the Axis of Relation to Parents" was published in İstanbul University Journal of Sociology, Volume 43 and Issue 1, in August 2023.
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Abstract
In parallel with the global care crisis, the institutional provision of childcare services in Türkiye is very limited. Therefore, childcare takes place predominantly in the private sphere of family especially in early childhood, with childcare being provided by the women in the family such as mothers and grandmothers. Depending on the mother’s participation in the workforce, another woman is paid informally to provide childcare when services and support for childcare is outsourced. This study focuses on the paid domestic workforce of full-time babysitters based on qualitative research. The study conducts within its scope in-depth interviews with 21 caregivers who are Turkish citizens with the aims of understanding childcare experiences and practices and examining the relationship these experiences and practices have with parental practices. The main finding shows that childcare work that takes place in the home environment within family relationships and that includes emotional expectations such as love and compassion makes the caregiver indispensable for the family they serve while simultaneously leading to caregivers being vulnerable to low wages and job insecurity due to the inadequacy of institutional childcare services and legal regulations regarding childcare work.
Keywords:
Caregiver, Childcare work, Caregiver-child-parent relationship, Childcare practices, Parents’ perceptions of childcare