Of course it has positive GDP on the parents: if two women each care for each others children rather than their own, GDP goes up even though the impact on both families is negative (due to lost travel time, as the mothers swap roles).

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bluGill an hour ago | parent [-]

The more likely case is one person (most often women, but men do childcare as well) is taking care of the kids of at least 3 couples (6 people), and could be up over 10 couples (which happens though often isn't legal or a good idea). That is per year, the kids grow out of daycare in 12-15 years, but a person typically works for 40 years.

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dmitrygr 19 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

12-15?

I walked home from school and calmly did homework util my parents arrived from work since age 8. This was the norm in Russia. Y'all's kids need daycare till 15?

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kwarcode 39 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

daycare at say 14 sounds suboptimal

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bluGill 32 minutes ago | parent [-]

Each culture is a little different. What are you going to do with your kids when the parents are working is a problem? At what time do you trust them to stay home by themself?

	▲	fpoling 2 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		In Soviet Union times in eighties in Belarus it was considered ok that a child could stay alone at home from age of 7 when they started a school. Some parents opted for after-school programs and some relied on grandmothers like it was for me but some of my schoolmates stayed at home alone for few hours until their mothers would be back from work (fathers typically worked longer and further away from home). And from the age of 9 there was no after-school options at least in my school.
	▲	4 minutes ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
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	▲	brailsafe 6 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		8-12 unless they have serious developmental issues. 15 is ridiculous