Education and child care. Experience for Colombian mothers and children, 2003

We analyze how mother’s time allocations and household characteristics affect the children’s quality of life. Children development is seen from two perspectives: education and childcare. Regarding education we consider school attendance and overage, i.e., the delay with respect to grade given the child’s age. Regarding childcare we examine how parents choose among the various alternatives to take care of the child during the time he or she is not at school. The mother’s labor force participation and the father’s presence at home are determinant and significant for all the cases, because it increases the school attendance and diminishes the possibility of delay. However, when the mother works extra hours the children’s quality of life diminishes. The mother’s education is a very important input to raise children with a good quality of life and it also helps parents in choosing the better childcare alternatives.