Tell Me Your Child Care Woes
Many of us were struggling before the current crisis
I live in a rural North Carolina county with “an extreme shortage” of child care. According to our local paper, less than 40 percent of the roughly 1,500 children who need preschool or daycare in the area receive it. There’s one full-day center run by the county, with a great reputation and a years-long waitlist, but otherwise, child care options for working parents are extremely limited.
Many of us rely on half-day preschools, which provide roughly 15 hours of care a week. That’s 15 hours to work, grocery shop, attend doctor’s appointments, etc.—provided no one gets sick. It’s an impossible juggling act that impacts the earning power of all the mothers I know. I’m panicking as summer approaches, because all of the preschool summer camps in our area shut down in August. Our school district has also decided to cut back on Pre-K classes, which will be devastating for the more than 160 students on the wait list.
Some of these cuts are due to the “child care cliff” — the end of the American Rescue Plan grants that helped stabilize the industry during the pandemic. But the shortage predates the coronavirus. Ansley Harron, director of programs and operations at my local Smart Start, told me our county’s child care workers earn an average of $11 an hour with no health benefits. It’s easy to see why preschools struggle to keep their classrooms staffed.
I have an opportunity to do some reporting on this issue, and would love to hear your experiences.
How do child care shortages affect your family?
Has a lack of child care impacted your career?
Would you work more hours if you had more care?
If you’re parenting with a partner, how does the strain of scrambling for child care affect your marriage?
If you’re an early childhood educator, what kind of support would you need to stay in the field?
If you like your child care situation, please tell me about that, too! I’d like to highlight communities that are handling this problem well.
You can share your stories in the comments below, or email me directly at lisarab@substack.com. Thank you, as always, for being part of this community.
We are fortunate to have stable full time child care in a facility where our child is safe and loved and grows so much. And still. We have 0 margin for delays between drop off and getting to work then coming back for pick up. Recently a supervisor encouraged me to take a lunch break for self care. I laughed because maintaining not my job and my childcare has to count as self care for now.
Last year we moved to a smaller city and out of the 5 preschools we applied to we were offered 2 full-day spaces. That is 8:30am-3:00pm. It's a wonderful school with a caring community where our child is thriving. We are very grateful. And, my work as a self-employed parent has absolutely changed. I only have so many hours in the school day and outside of our regular preschool childcare, we don't have a babysitter or family nearby. So while yes, it's a wonderful gift to have consistent and reliable preschool, the hours outside of school time are not accounted for (neither are the sick days, holidays, conference days, etc). It's a small margin for error and time management which means I can only take on so many projects which limits the growth of my business in one way or another. Some stretches of time feel manageable and like we are crushing it, and others feel like we are drowning because life outside of parenting can be nonexistent.