Could the government help working parents with childcare?
I watched the debate on Tuesday and was enthralled. I was as excited to watch it as anything I can remember on television. I’d been chirping about it to my wife for days. And when it started I made sure my two older daughters were there to watch it. It was my Super Bowl Sunday.
I was not disappointed.
But I woke up at the next day wanting more, like when you eat too much for dinner and are super hungry at breakfast.
I’d love care to be a question in an October presidential debate, if it were to happen. I want details around plans for parenting and caregiving.
After all the U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy all but said that parenting is bad for my health. The stress, the scheduling, the schadenfreude of the sandlot – it’s not good.
“Having safe, affordable before- and after-school care programs, predictable work schedules that allow parents to plan childcare and workplace leadership that understands the complex demands on parents can help immensely,” he wrote in The New York Times. “Safe playgrounds, libraries and community centers can give children places to play and learn and also serve as valuable settings for parents to gather and build social connection.”
The U.S. surgeon general has been advising us on things that harm our health for decades. Don’t smoke. Don’t do drugs. Don’t eat sugar or processed food. Don’t smoke, like really, don’t smoke. Don’t be alone. Don’t be a stressed-out parental ball of nerves.
I’m an optimistic pragmatist, so I thought: What questions about working parents and childcare would I ask Kamala Harris and Donald Trump in a second debate – knowing they have a mere 2 minutes to answer?
In the first debate, they circled around care in the context of healthcare. Trump had “concepts” about what a revised national healthcare plan would look like, which was weak since he’s already been president for four years. Harris talked about a $6,000 child tax care credit, nearly double what it is now but still not enough to cover a year of full-time care in any state.
So here’s my one question:
“Could the federal government help working parents with the cost of childcare from birth to age five? If so, what would it look like? If not, is this something companies could do?”
The reality may be that only companies can provide care options for their workers as a benefit like health and dental insurance, 401k plans, flexible spending accounts, etc. Many companies already provide backup childcare through providers like Bright Horizons (and others have childcare centers in their headquarters).
In a perfect world the government would see care as essential as defense, energy and infrastructure. But we don’t live in that world.
I can see an imperfect solution where companies step in and compete with each other to attract talent with care-based benefit plans. It would be a step forward.
What do you think?
