Fostering Childcare E-Service: Design and Development of a Software Application

Fostering Childcare E-Service: Design and Development of a Software Application

Noof A. Al-Safi, Rawan A. Al-Asiri, Malak A. Al-Malki, Sameera Abar
DOI: 10.4018/IJITN.299368
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Abstract

A novel and vibrant mobile computing application has been designed and developed that facilitates a well-organized far-off active interaction amongst its stakeholders constantly, mainly a parent and babysitter/nanny who heeds on updating about the current situation of a child. Basically, the key idea to provide an online childcare service aims towards constructing an app that supports the mothers to virtually monitor, track, manage and timely take sound care of their children from a distant place. On duty parents or guardians feel connected on having up-to-date information on the child status literally in the palm of a hand and can do the job tasks with utmost focus, contentment and peace of mind. Performance evaluation of the embedded features and functionality of the proposed strategy confirms its ease and utility on a regular day-to-day basis towards fostering quality parenthood for little kids. Furthermore, this research work serves as a usable reference in varied domains for the students engineering their own software applications.
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Introduction

Owing to the recent drastic changes in the living standards and norms from traditional combined-family oriented environs to independent nuclear set-ups where both partners work, keeping effective care of babies and toddlers has become quite a daunting challenge to deal with. Most working mothers present day are preoccupied, rather overloaded by their time-consuming plenty of chores and responsibilities so as a result, the young generation of babies and toddlers sometimes feel neglected for longer periods of time and their daily care-level may get compromised (Poduval & Poduval, 2009). Infantile minds demand attention and prudent care that can be absent in a repertoire of ménages particularly when the mother works far away from her place of residence. Mother inevitably as a natural caregiver (Luppi & Arpino, 2016) might also be worried, guilty and stressed out during her office hours whether her child at the disposal of others is safe and secure back home or at the daycare nursery. Parents are undoubtedly among the most important people in the lives of young children. From birth onwards, children do learn and rely on mothers and fathers as well as other caregivers who play supporting roles of safeguarding and vigilance (Glăveanu & Gherghinescu, 2014). While parents generally desire and anticipate nurturing, rearing and grooming their offsprings in a finest manner, some may lack the requisite knowledge and skill about how to endue an apt look-after aid in their absences. Recently, the number of working parents, including single parent lone units and families with both parents, who are employed in jobs is on its rise, thus creating an ever-growing need for quality childcare support.

Therefore, a problem that needs to be addressed since a long time, concerning the parents being far away from their children during the working hours while performing duties (Harknett et al, 2020) so that they don’t have to rush back in their breaks to check on kids. Typically, the public organizations, private companies or industries don’t have the provision of child minding on-site nurseries in the vicinity. When parents use to go to jobs they wouldn’t normally let the children to stay alone at home. Conventional line of action is to plan for an elder or babysitter but even this seems insufficient arrangement for them due to the desire to know the real-time assurance of the children’s security, comfort and welfare. Most of the time, there is none live communication channel and information exchange among the parents and the babysitter about the existing condition of children, so we strive to find the solution to this dilemma to enable the parents knowing everything of their kids when they are physically apart at faraway places (Shpancer et al, 2008; Drugli & Undheim, 2012). In some cases, parents’ lives are fraught with snags and uncertainties that hinders ensuring their child’s physical or emotional well-being in a best possible way (Hemalatha & Matilda, 2018). Hence, there is an urgent need to create an entrepreneurial opportunity for the caretaker providers who want to render their hands-on services to the masses who are in-search of dependable, reliable, efficient means and mechanisms to protect and secure their endearing kids (Levesque, 2016). In the midst of ongoing global Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) breakout, nation-wide playgroup academies and daycare centers are closed globally; thus in the pandemic crisis, necessity of non-disruptive childcare services is more than ever (Nwosu, 2021; Power, 2020; Swadener et al., 2020). However, present virus surge has led to income boost of nanny agencies due to the unprecedented demand of in-home babysitters. The proposed ‘BabySitter Finder’ application may prove to be an ideal resort for making appropriate childcare arrangements, especially when the positive-tested adults isolate themselves in quarantine or in case they are frontline professional medics or have to be away too for their other sine-qua-non obligations. Keeping all the aforementioned considerations in context, an idea of founding a new online system was nourished to help parents amicably shielding their children at times while they are themselves coping with the practical daily life experiences and issues.

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