Vocabulary Words to Learn

• affordable (af-ford-abel) adjective “low cost or low price, something you have the money to buy”

• alternative ( al-ter-na-tive) noun “one or more choices or possiblities”
  

• burden (bur-den) noun “load or weight”

• continue (con-tin-u) verb “to go on with or to last for a period of time”

• keen (keen) an adjective “very enthusiastic or excited about”

• possible (pos-si-bel) adjective “capable of occuring, existing or being”

• society (so-ci-e-ty) noun “the members of a community or group considered together”

• unfortunately (un-for-tu-nate-ly) adverb “unluckily or regretably“

For the Bulgarian people, nothing is more important than family. It is so important that few think true happiness is possible without a family. With more and more women working, having a family has become more of a challenge. In the Bulgarian society, some men still do not take a big role in the raising of the child or care of the home. This is beginning to change in many families as Bulgaria becomes more like other European countries. The grandparents continue to play a big part in the family when it comes to raising the children. Also, kindergartens in Bulgaria offer another alternative for parents. However, it’s not always an easy task to get a child enrolled. Many parents have to wait years before this happens. Parents can hire a baby sitter but this is expensive and only the people with a high income can afford this. Babysitters are preferred by some parents to grandparents because the baby sitters have skills the grandparents lack. Many “sitters” are from teaching or nursing backgrounds and young parents can require more of them than they can from their parents. With so much expense involved in raising a child in Bulgaria these days, few families have more than two children. Most seem to want only one and some prefer none. Some grandparents are not as keen on raising their grandchildren as they were in the past but for the most part they are still the ones the parents look to for child care. For the parents, it’s all about who they can trust and in most cases what they can afford in the way of child care. Mothers and fathers in Bulgaria are loving and caring but unfortunately they have little income to work with. This places a burden on them and the children they are raising when it comes to what’s best for the child.

USA education level required to read this post: 7th grade

Questions for Class and Pair Discussion

• What are your earliest memories of your childhood?

• When you were a child, did you stay with your grandparents while your parents worked? Or were you in a kindergarten?

• In your opinion, what should the government do to provide parents with better childcare?

• What type of person would you select to care for your children if your parents could not care for them while you work? What background and experience would you require?