Work-Life Balance? Try Work-Life-Teacher All-at-the-Same-Time
Today, I was going to write about paid sick leave, but I spent my morning micromanaging 3rd grade distance learning during quarantine. As schools have shifted from in-person learning to learning-via-Zoom, it has shed light on the role of the working parent, especially since so many of us are working from home as well.
On top of the digital divide of homes that lack internet access, because they’re rural or in poverty, aside (that’s yet another topic to come back to later), there’s also the question of who now bears the task of managing this new work. In households with multiple generations of adults, there are plenty of Nanas taking it on. But for the rest of us, it’s overwhelmingly the women who have shouldered this responsibility. And for the single parents, we’re it.
I don’t know about you, but during quarantine it is not a unique experience to have scheduled Zoom calls for both my daughter and myself over the course of the day. Someone (read that as Mom) has to make sure that we’re not on a call at the same time, because 9 year olds on Zoom don’t have great volume control and inevitably if I’m not available, that’s when we have technical issues. And then there’s the homework that happens. After we discovered that it takes some serious oversight to ensure all work is actually completed, we now have a daily time in the morning when we write down the homework tasks, my daughter’s chores for the day, and set reminders on Alexa for when my daughter has something she has to do. And then I have to make sure she actually does the work.
So what does this all have to with childcare? This routine takes a toll. And that is assuming that there is an adult who can stay at home during the day. For essential workers or those who work for employers who have been allowed to reopen, it doesn’t change the fact that schools are still closed across the country, and summer is fast approaching. I highly doubt that the usual variety of summer camps and activities will be offered. Right now, the only childcare I know of is for essential workers (mostly in healthcare) or for those that can afford the nanny option.
So when the village we usually rely on to raise our children is suddenly no longer available, it is made abundantly clear just how crucial it is to address childcare as a society. I see several issues to consider.
The first is how do we deal with childcare during quarantine. On the one hand, the number of people working outside their homes is down, which means that demand is also significantly down. But, the people that need childcare really need it - and not just during the nine to five. Healthcare is an around the clock profession, and having had a baby while on active duty in the military, I know how rare it is to find care for overnights or weekends even before this pandemic. Which makes the available childcare facilities essential, as well as their employees. (Who happen to be mainly women, but that’s yet another topic.) We have to make sure that there is sufficient coverage for all essential workers to be able to go to work. During this pandemic and afterwards, we must find solutions for childcare outside traditional working hours. And, we need to ensure that we are keeping everyone involved healthy. From adjusting dropoff and pickup logistics to be more socially distant to figuring out how to keep shared toys and spaces sanitary, it’s a big endeavor with a lot of complicated factors. Ultimately, it’s going to be difficult and from a big picture perspective, the smaller the pool of people needing to work outside their homes, the easier it will be to make sure they can keep doing so.
The second issue is how we address the childcare issue as the unemployed search for work. With a record number of people filing for unemployment, it means a lot of folks are looking for a new job. For right now, it is the case that not being able to work to take care of a child is an acceptable reason to not return to work, but that’s not the end of the story. When it’s technically no longer the school year, does that change, especially in states looking to kick people off of unemployment? Because I can tell you that at least for this summer, camps and sports leagues are not going to happen. So we must ensure the safety net covers that gap as well. By fall, we might be able to reopen schools, but if a second wave of virus is hitting then we may have to close again (or stay closed, depending on the timing). Putting an arbitrary end date on this protection is ridiculous. Unemployment benefits are temporary in nature by design and frankly, short term lack of childcare for a single parent is definitely not conducive to working outside the home.
And the third issue is what childcare looks like as more businesses reopen and we settle into a new normal. Since we have realized just how much in our economy depends on working parents, it makes economic sense to ensure that more people can work outside the home once it’s safe to do so, and it will help those families as well. So let’s talk about what that means. I was just starting teaching when I got divorced and had to care for my daughter on my own. I went $35,000 in debt to cover my daughter’s childcare before she was old enough to go to kindergarten. And that was working full time as well as being a Navy reservist.
Then there is the case of when the only jobs available are minimum wage or close to it. If it’s going to cost someone more in childcare than they’re earning, plus putting themselves and their family at a higher risk of illness, then the economic (and social) calculus doesn’t work out for a return to work, especially for single parents. Ensuring a living wage is part of a bigger picture economic strategy, but it’s not the entire solution. Here in Texas, two of three families can’t afford childcare.
We must invest in universal childcare and pre-kindergarten programs that ensure that any family under 200% of the poverty line has free childcare and that for any family the cost is capped at 7% of their income. We must acknowledge the necessity of childcare and the inherent tension between providing for your family financially while not spending your entire income just in order to go to work.
And before you ask, yes, that homework got finished today.
TL;DR bullet points:
Childcare is vital to families and the economy.
The burden to care for our kids falls disproportionately on women and single parents.
Temporary unavailability of childcare should be a permanent addition to valid reasons for unemployment.
There is a need for childcare outside of traditional working hours, for many essential workers and others.
An overall economic strategy that focuses on supporting more than the wealthiest Americans is crucial.
Universal childcare and pre-kindergarten programs will help families, which in turn helps the economy.
