Plymouth County Perspectives on the Child Care Crisis
Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Plymouth County community members were worried about the accessibility to early education and child care. However, the pandemic has exasperated an already broken system, and Plymouth County parents are speaking out about it.
Jordan L. tells a story of financial trouble in the time of COVID: “When businesses were forced to close in mid-March due to the pandemic, my husband's small business was one of these closures. We hated to do this, but we immediately withdrew our children from their private daycare…we could have returned to daycare but we decided against sending the children back. We are still not financially secure to pay for the high cost of care.”
She continues on passionately to say that “my greatest concern for the childcare system is that so many private providers will close forever. We face this reality daily as small-business owners ourselves. I worry for the women who own these small daycares, for the women who work in those centers as educators, for the women who are needing to adjust their work schedules so they can continue to do both work and childcare, and for the children like mine who are missing the socialization and structure of their childcare. We are hopeful that both kids will be back in school in September.”
Katherine L. speaks to the importance of maintaining a job for the benefit of all members of her family: “If I had access to high-quality, affordable early education and child care that would mean less of a mental and a financial burden would be placed on my family. My partner and I could return to work content knowing that our child is in good hands, and can therefore focus on thriving at work. We wouldn’t have to consider sacrificing our way of life or possibly not working at all to care for our child.”
Rachel describes how the COVID-19 pandemic forced her to maintain a full time job and watch her young children all day: “The height of the pandemic was the height of our [child care] challenge. I spent a lot of time working nights even more so than usual and really just watched my boys struggle. They don't mind a phone call here and there, they're used to that but it really got to the point where I was on so many internal calls that I would tell them I would have to take a call and they would actually start crying, even if I offered them an iPad, which is normally their most favorite, prized possession. So that was a really big challenge.”
Devon G. says that “when the COVID lockdown began, I know I was incredibly lucky to continue working remotely, but I was left struggling to balance caring for my three little ladies and maintaining my full time job. As part of the efforts to flatten the curve, we distanced ourselves from our parents and stopped sending our girls to daycare a week before the state shut them down. It was incredibly stressful balancing work, my girls, and my guilt, as I knew many people were no longer able to work. And yet I found myself stressed out, anxious, and upset. Even before COVID, the balance was fragile. Sometimes I wondered if the cost of childcare and time with my girls was worth it. But COVID elevated those feelings to an extreme I've never experienced before.”
These local parents have experienced child care hardship in the wake of COVID-19 that has extended into the years following the pandemic’s peak. Their stories remind us of the current fragile child care and early education system that we see in Massachusetts today.