Prior to the pandemic, women made up more of the labor force than men, earned more degrees than men, and held more than half of management occupations.
All this progress came to a halt when, in the spring of 2020, schools and child care centers across the country began to shut down due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Without access to child care, many working families faced difficult decisions and uncertainty. As a result, 5.1 million mothers in the United States left the workforce. Today, 1.3 million still remain out of work.
While those on the Left have pounced on this as an opportunity to advocate for universal child care, a government-centered model that would make child care centers free or heavily subsidized, such a one-size-fits-all proposal is bound to make the situation for working mothers even more difficult.
American Compass reported that in 2021, having one parent work full time and the other stay at home was the most desired arrangement reported by lower-, working-, and middle-class families. Universal child care would be a fine solution for households in which parents want to work full time, but it is not the answer for families that want a more traditional household.
Instead, workplaces need to be incentivized to offer flexibility to younger families via remote or hybrid work. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, my husband was fortunate enough to keep his job and work remotely. As a stay-at-home mother, a full-time Ph.D. student, and a local elected official, I was majorly relieved to have my husband home working a flexible schedule so we could balance our son’s needs without having to rely on child care services.
In West Virginia, our access to day care or child care centers is limited. Many rural communities face this issue, and many traditional families like ours would much rather care for our children ourselves.
Our nation’s child care policies should respect the needs of traditional families. Direct payments or tax credits that can be used for either child care services or supplemental costs are a much better option that allows working families to choose how to best care for their child without solely relying on day cares.
One of the unforeseen benefits of the Covid-19 pandemic is that it forced many companies to embrace remote work, something that can greatly benefit young families whose children are not yet school age.
A recent survey revealed that 64% of employees at top-tier companies, including Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan, would prefer to work from home permanently rather than get a $30,000-a-year raise.
Ironically enough, the “pro-family” policy of universal child care will only lead to children spending less time with their actual families. Child care will never have a one-size-fits-all solution. All families are unique, and we need true “pro-family” policies that reflect that….
The above comes from a July 13 story in the Washington Examiner.
Kids have a natural right to their parents. You had them, don’t farm out their care to hired hands, you are irreplaceable to your children.
This article is just plain dumb. The survey data reported by the American Compass, who conducted the survey and how was the data collected? And the author is just the typical American housewife working on a PhD from home, while raising her children, serving as a local elected official and tending to her husband? I think not!
Children belong at home with a parent whenever possible. Companies are devising ways to provide hybrid work models. But, the author would make you think she is a typical mother and that her family is typical. Far from it. It is almost impossible for a family at the lower pay scales to survive without both parents working full time and perhaps two jobs. Childcare is very expensive. In the Sacramento area, childcare is in the $700-850 per month plus after-school care. A person making $15 per hour makes $3.400 a month and a two-bedroom apartment is around $2,000 per month. “Universal Childcare” doesn’t imagine the government running daycare centers. Rather, it imagines, through direct payments or tax credits providing a buffer for families to afford childcare so that they can work one job if possible. Families with children will have money deposited directly to their bank account on a monthly basis. A little help from your fellow citizens can’t be all bad.
When you add up the expenses of child care, transportation to work, clothing, lunches, etc, the lesser earning parent might be spending more than they are making.
If more people, especially lower income earners actually look at the numbers, they might realize it’s better financially to stay home with the kids. Definitively better for the kids.
A lot of people work to get the health insurance. But a lot of low wage earners don’t get health insurance.
I was pressured to put my kid into daycare even though I stayed home.
A person making $15 / hour if working 40 hours a week would make closer to $2400 a month. But you don’t really get that much.
Many people seem to not know that Catholic social teaching speaks of a “just wage” as a “family wage.” The Church sees value in one parent “staying home” and investing in their children. Those children, those families and society all benefit.
Have any of you heard a social justice homily or talk in your parish about this?
Let’s return to value the importance of raising children. It’s no small or easy task, but all benefit.
For more, you can check out:
https://thenationalpulse.com/analysis/cortes-agenda-for-one-income-families/
or
https://catholicvote.org/az-dems-attack-gop-candidates-defense-of-one-income-families/
Excellent post Deacon Anderson. When both the mother and father work too much, a good portion of the money goes into taxes that encourage welfare for some single mothers to stay home while the fathers are “cut out of the picture”, which is a major destroyer of families and society.
You can find the living wage for any area online. MIT has a living wage calculator.
i assume universal child care
would only work if one is caring
for the “universal” child
unfortunately, mine are all unique
The checks are in the mail next week. $300 per month per child (with some restrictions) for parents to use it for food, childcare, rent, catholic school tuition, whatever.