LACK OF CHILDCARE LEADS TO UNEMPLOYMENT

The start of fall season is also the start of a new school year, and many children and their parents are struggling to adapt to remote learning. But the lack of a classroom setting or Internet connection are the least of their problems. The bigger problem that parents are struggling a lot with is childcare and many to the point where they are quitting their jobs to stay at home to help their children through online learning.

In the past, many parents depended on children going to school as well as afterschool programs as a form of childcare while they worked. Since the pandemic started, however, this is no longer possible. If anything, it has made being at home imperative to their children’s learning, causing parents, especially millennial parents, to quit their non-remote jobs.

Many millennial mothers have been meeting the short end of the childcare stick. According to a survey by the Center of American Progress, 38 percent of millennial mothers quit their jobs in June because of a lack of childcare. The numbers are likely to be higher now that the school year has begun.

Furthermore, essential jobs are mostly comprised of women of color who cannot afford childcare during the pandemic, but who can’t also afford quitting their jobs, yet are still leaving the workforce.

The solutions to this problem seem to be scant with a lot of parents turning to other relatives for childcare help. Another option parents are taking is simply leaving their children without adult supervision while they go to work. Neither options, however, are sustainable in the long run.

Without a free and safe childcare option, as well as no income or economical federal help, parents are between a rock and a hard place. They are expected to somehow make ends meet all the while taking care of their kids. The real concern is how far could parents, as well as the economy, go until they reach their breaking point?