After two years of pandemic-related school closing, parents are looking forward to getting back to work and making a living. However, parents are now scrambling for child care options as they deal with limited caregivers, daycare closures, and expensive daycare services as repercussions of the safety measures imposed due to COVID-19.
The stress of not having a childcare
Journalist Meg St-Esprit was looking forward to reporting to work in person after two years of homeschooling. Her twins are back in public school this year while her three-year-old started daycare. Getting back to work would mean allowing her to get on with her full-time career.
Lately, with the latest Omicron wave, a COVID-19 exposure led to the closure of her youngest kid's daycare center, causing her to step back from work. "I had to let several assignments go because I couldn't find any solution otherwise," she said. St-Esprit estimates that the family lost around $50,000 of income due to a lack of childcare, especially when the kids were homeschooled.
Childcare has become a major problem for working parents, causing a mental and emotional toll.
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Staggering Cost of Quality Childcare
In 2021, Natalie Saldana, a single mom, full-time student, and health insurance agent in South Carolina, struggled to find child care even as it had reopened due to the steep price that child care entails. It has a monthly cost of $700, which Saldana says "is almost my rent."
The reliability of child care is also a concern for those who could afford it. Joe Lopez, a father of three, pays $1,000 a month to send his youngest to daycare, but there are days when he needs to turn around to pick him up from school due to school shutdowns.
"I wake up, log in to my computer to start work from home and then I randomly get a text from the daycare that they're shut down for two or three days," he said.
Reduced enrollment and workforce
When the economy opened, decreased capacities, distancing requirements, and limited workforce caused a large gap in child care centers. "If [a daycare center] was licensed for 10 [kids], they could have five," explained National Child Care Association Cindy Lehnhoff said. Most child care centers have around 30 percent of capacity utilized.
The limited workforce also forces the school to refuse children as they lost a third of their workforce in April 2020. "We didn't get them back," she explained.
Solutions for Child care woes
Experts share this advice to help in parent's child care woes:
Seek support from friends, family, community
Form a group with people who share the same dilemma. Work together to help watch out for the kids, like assigning one parent to watch the kids.
Work on Complimentary Shifts
Adult caregivers can work on complementary shifts to take turns looking after the kids and working.
Call the federal government for more childcare support
According to St-Esprit, only 4 percent of the qualifying families can get a spot in subsidized child care programs. She said that allocating more government funds for child care support is the only way to address the concern.
"We need to nationally subsidize child care; that's the solution," St-Esprit added.
