When I had my son, I knew I wanted to be home with him for the first four months and then slowly return to work, first part-time and then full-time. I wish I could say that I was able to do that because of America’s amazing paid leave and child care policies, but we know that was not the case. In truth, I was able to do so because of my own financial circumstances and other privileges that many families may not enjoy. And when my son turned 4, my husband and I were able to stop cutting into our savings to pay for child care, as he entered New York City’s Universal Pre-Kindergarten program. He attended preschool with children from all over Brooklyn, an amazing diversity of families that enhanced his experience. He learned from great teachers; he built on the social skills he gained in the child care program he attended before preschool; and, even with after-school care and summer camp bills, our family income finally exceeded our expenses again.
It is not okay with me that countless families and children across our country are not afforded the same opportunity. Nor is it fair that my lack of student debt, my mother’s willingness to provide two days of child care a week in the first year, and our ability to afford a nanny and then a high-quality child care program gave my child an advantage other children don’t have, including stimulating activities, connections to other children, and time with family.
American policymakers should take note. Whether they’re seeking to assuage growing concerns about affordability, ensure every child has a strong start in life, stimulate the economy, or encourage families to have more children, both Democrats and Republicans can look to universal child care as a simple and effective solution. To be clear, the idea of universal child care is to give every family choices, including the option to find and afford care that works for their family. It offers flexibility and choice, not a “one size fits all” mandate, and creates a partnership between parents and early educators.
“Every family, regardless of their zip code or tax bracket, deserves to be able to make the best decisions when it comes to caring for their own children.”
Julie Kashen
“The push for universal child care ignores the unique developmental needs of young children. The loving relationships crucial to early development cannot be carried out ‘at scale.’”
Katharine B. Stevens and Jenet Erickson
All parents should have the freedom to go to work knowing their children are being cared for in safe environments by nurturing caregivers and early educators who will support their children’s development and well-being. All mothers—who are still the primary caregivers in the majority of families—need the same options fathers and wealthy families currently enjoy: the freedom to make decisions about how to work and parent. Universal child care, when fully funded and well implemented, supports parents’ choices, higher family income, thriving children, greater gender equity, and economic growth. It is a win-win policy that should enjoy support across the political spectrum.
For most families in America, living a life free of stress, burnout, loneliness, or debt is unattainable and unaffordable. Child care is one of the largest expenses on families’ balance sheets at an average of more than $13,000 a year. That’s why making child care affordable has become such a central agenda item for winning political campaigns. From Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York City to the governors-elect of New Jersey and Virginia, winning candidates put reducing the cost of care at the center of their platforms, and voters rewarded them with historic victories.
It’s not just about making life more affordable. Strong child care policies also support families’ ability to manage their work and family responsibilities with greater ease. When parents have less stress and fewer financial burdens, it’s good for kids. When parents have more economic stability to house, feed, clothe, and care for their children, it supports their children’s cognitive development and well-being, which is particularly critical in their early years. Harvard researchers have found that, between birth and age 3, healthy development “provides the building blocks for educational achievement, economic productivity, responsible citizenship, lifelong health, strong communities, and successful parenting of the next generation.”
In addition, robust child care options would benefit businesses and overall economic growth. A 2023 study found that the U.S. economy loses $122 billion in revenue, earnings, and productivity each year due to sparse child care offerings. American families lose $78 billion per year as a result of child care challenges, employers lose $23 billion annually due to child care challenges faced by their workforce, and taxpayers lose $21 billion each year in lower local, state, and federal tax revenue. New research has also found that child care investments in particular help drive up women’s labor force participation.
Solving child care is a no-brainer no matter your politics. It’s good for children, families, gender equity, and economic growth. The Department of Defense spends about $2 billion a year on military child care—the largest employer-based child care program in the country—to ensure that military parents can focus on mission readiness. Whether you want to support parents and their employers like the military or ensure equal opportunity for every child, folks with a variety of political beliefs have a stake in this fight.
Unfortunately, however, every time the United States gets close to implementing policies that might benefit universal access to child care, we see the revival of decades-old arguments about the role of women in families.
In 1971, when the Comprehensive Child Development Act passed Congress with bipartisan support, President Richard Nixon decried the child care bill as “family-weakening,” vetoing the legislation and making an argument that would shape this debate for decades to come. Nixon’s message moved us further away from the notion that “it takes a village” in deference to a do-it-yourself version of parenthood. The viewpoint, enhanced by other conservative voices, suggested that mothers who work are hurting the well-being of their children.
In her book Holding It Together, Jessica Calarco explains how this kind of falsehood plays into the “supermom” myth used to keep women “in their place.” The narrative posits that children are in constant danger and moms are “the only ones with the power to rescue them from harm,” Calarco wrote. But it is merely an excuse to put child care responsibilities solely on moms and not invest in policies that would make life more manageable for families. Indeed, research has shown that “children who were cared for exclusively by their mothers did not develop differently than those who were also cared for by others.”
The truth is that parents’ well-being directly influences the well-being of their children, and in many cases, that requires parents to have agency and the ability to work. At the same time, well-resourced child care providers can optimize children’s cognitive, social, and emotional development, including by fostering consistent relationships with caring, responsible educators and child care staff who are attuned and appropriately responsive to children’s social-emotional needs. In most families, parents are the primary caregivers for their kids, but not their sole caregivers. Other adults and peers, including child care professionals, teachers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, coaches, counselors, classmates, play a crucial role in the development of well-adjusted, healthy children
When my son was in a child care program, I did not hand over his parenting to early educators—I partnered with them to ensure he had the support he needed to learn and grow. I loved meeting other parents who became a support group for learning how to be the parent I want to be. I appreciated learning from his teachers how to manage his big feelings and reinforce lessons about sharing (harder with an only child!)—and even the potty training lessons from our child care director. Not only did I learn from them, but I was also able to give my son something else he deserved: a happy, fulfilled mother who earned enough money as a co-breadwinner to give him a good life. Today, only wealthier families can find and afford the kind of child care that meets their needs, despite the fact that most families with young children have all available parents in the workforce.
Unfortunately, despite clear evidence that government-sponsored child care supports children and families while powering our economic engines, too many policymakers are still unwilling or unable to see the benefits.
This reluctance comes despite the Republican Party’s efforts to encourage higher birth rates. If politicians were serious about supporting parents’ efforts to have more children, they would put their money where their mouth is by investing in policies that make it easier to manage work and parenting and support healthy children and parents. Instead, they are content to rely on the unpaid or underpaid labor of women.
The conservatives who promote staying home as the only reasonable track for mothers make it look flashy and desirable by pushing the image of the “tradwife,” a romanticized image of women who prioritize the needs of their home and husband above their own. But this picture ignores the difficulties of supporting a family on a single income, the long-term financial and career penalties faced by moms who leave their jobs, and the economic benefits of women’s participation in the workforce.
True choices for moms include reliable child care options, with public investments in the well-being of all of America’s children, as well as the other essential family-forward policies like paid family and medical leave, paid sick days, part-time parity in wages and benefits, fair scheduling, and more.
I understand that there are a number of people still enamored with the idea of barefoot, pregnant women spending their days in the kitchen, caring for their husbands and their babies. And the folks who subscribe to that fantasy may never be convinced. But every family, regardless of their zip code or tax bracket, deserves to be able to make the best decisions when it comes to caring for their own children. Public policy that enables all families to thrive, in whatever way they choose to live, work, and love, creates a better world for us all.
