 Well, hello and welcome everyone to another episode of crisis conversations live from the better life lab I'm Bridget Schulte director of the better life lab and I am so excited to be having this very important and very timely discussion today with a great a Great set of panelists and parents here and the question is really We in the United States are really outliers when it comes to supporting working families We do not have the paid family leave. We don't have help with child care. It's very much a private Responsibility here. That's the way that sort of the the the American belief system has Has emerged and yet COVID is made so clear that this is a real crisis Parents are struggling Childcare providers are closing and going out of business This is a this is a huge crisis. And so the question is You know, one of the questions that that that advocates have always said is that well, you know Maybe we'd get more progress if parents were more involved if they were more of a force But parents are also really busy caregivers are really busy and they don't have time to organize And so the people who would benefit the most from these work family supports are the people who are most stressed and most under under the under pressure and most most unable to make those kinds of You know political Make that kind of political ask so the question now is is is COVID and this real suffering that so many families are going through Is that changing the equation? So let me introduce our guests and we will dive right in and as always this is live This is interactive. This is raw and in the moment So we'd like all of you to and people who are participating Please use the chat function to ask a question to leave a comment To share a story We'll save time toward the end of our conversation to bring you on live or to ask your question So please feel free to use the the chat function freely. So joining us today. We've got Alyssa quartz She's the executive director of the economic hardship reporting project and she's written a number of Really great pieces that we'll be sharing in the chat Really looking at a child care crisis the care crisis. We've got Tamara Mose. She's a sociologist sociology professor at Brooklyn College She's also the director of diversity equity and inclusion at the American sociological association And she's the author of among other things raising Brooklyn nannies child care and Caribbean's creating community Now we've also got Justin Reid. He's a parent and co-founder of parents together and new Group that's very been very active on Facebook in particular and we've also got Jennifer Biel Saxton She's the parent and founder and CEO of Totsquad We have Deja Reid who's a parent who's involved with sterling thunder, but we might be having We might be having some technical difficulties so hopefully that she she can join us so Alyssa Let's start with you. You've been writing a lot about this. Can you? you know Tell us about Kind of the landscape that you're seeing as you've been reporting about the care crisis Yeah, so I've been arguing in these pieces. I've been writing that we need a parents revolution And when I say that I mean that from the bottom of my heart parents are often too tired and too stressed and also it's a Often a limited period of someone's life, you know, it's not an identity that lasts forever a parent of a young child So but all these factors go into them having trouble organizing as a group But right now because of the pandemic because of people's economic problems medical problems Obviously with remote schooling this has got to happen. This is an opportunity. I think some of the things I found when I was reporting these pieces for places like Slate and the Washington Post was that you know First of all infant child care costs an average of 11,000 per year It's more than the price of public colleges in 33 states and you know more in a more local sense Infants are really being sweet. So you have Licensed child care more than three times as scarce for kids age zero to two than those age three to five And I can get into why that's happening, but it's literally Forcing women I think it was 600,000 Last month out of the workforce because they there's just not even the daycare for them if they were to be able to Afford it. So this is some of the pieces of this puzzle, which I'm Getting into but I'm so happy to be here bridge it in to see tomorrow Who's a familiar face from my last book squeezed? I I have heard my last book. She's an incredible resource So, thank you. Well, great. Well, Justin, let's go to you You know, you are the co-founder of parents together You know, what are what are some of the conversations that you're hearing from parents? Are they? You know, is there more of an awakening of you know So often parents feel like or the story is if you choose to have children then you better figure out how to do it And so that if there's a sense of struggle, there's this sense of personal failure that somehow You know, that's certainly how I felt as a parent when my kids were young What's the conversation now that that you're hearing? What are some of the stories that you're hearing from people and do you think that this you know Our parents becoming awakened to that maybe there's a different way of doing things and they can be part of that change Yeah, you know, first of all super appreciate you putting this together and inviting us and I think I Mean, just this is the hardest thing that's happened to families in 80 or 90 years, right? so we have about two and a half million parents that we reach around the country in our kind of membership and More than half of them I would say would tell us that they're struggling or in crisis. So I think absolutely parents or feel abandoned and Desperately in trouble right now Either because in some cases they don't have enough to eat or they can't make rent or They've had to cut back on work or quit work entirely to do childcare or because they're doing remote learning and it's not going well Or the kids aren't getting the services they need or they're just doing remote learning and it's going okay But it's still breaking them or they're trying to work at the same time as doing zoom you know, so all this incredible squeeze and I think What but we did a survey so I think that that's the context for what We hear from parents which is Right now in this moment total desperation and frustration Interestingly enough we did a survey last week on the election and how parents were engaging around voting and the results I think were really exciting and interesting so the parents that we surveyed 95% said they were going to vote And 36% of them said that the pandemic and the economic crisis have made them more likely to vote so even though parents are Literally like voting can be dangerous to your health depending on how you do it You don't have childcare anymore and you don't want to bring your kids to the polls Many parents don't want to bring their kids to the polls like they did before and Parents are 20 times more likely to say that the pandemic was making them more likely to vote As opposed to less likely to vote. Wow. So, you know, I sort of went into this expecting Very well, we might see that people were just saying voting is a luxury that I can't afford this year right for I follow politics. Most people don't follow politics, right? Most people aren't super political and you know, who has time for the election Well, the truth is parents the pandemic is actually driving parents to the polls what we found Two thirds of them are talking to their kids about the election Uh, 35 or more than half said they were more likely to talk to the kids about this election than any election That's that in the previously so I think there is a huge sense to which parents are And and and another 32 percent of parents Said that the pandemic is affecting who they vote for and this is in a context in which, you know, pundits have been telling us for Months that everybody knows who they're voting for and there's no swing voters and you know, all of this is fixed So I think it's having a huge impact um And the election is one place in which we're starting to see that and we have parents across the country We did an event that started last week called chalk the vote We hit you if you uh, if you look up the hashtag chalk to vote on instagram or facebook They're kind of beautiful images of parents taking their kids out and chalking voting messages around the country So and I know people who have been writing their kids have been writing hundreds of postcards to voters So it was really inspiring for us to see the ways in which even though people are so stressed out right now Because government has not been able to deliver the relief that folks desperately need People are actually looking at the ballot box right now is one way to to get involved Yeah, I mean there's more to say but that's that's one place. I think it's important for us to start Okay, great. Well, thank you. Well, we're gonna come back. I want to hear more about chalk the vote But let's go to jennifer. So jennifer You know, tell us your own story. What what are you struggling with and kind of what are you also hearing from your networks? And how is this moment perhaps changing things for parents in terms of what to expect or what to demand? Yeah, absolutely. So, uh, I have a little girl who just turned two and I'm halfway pregnant I'm like just hit the 20 week mark and expecting another baby in March Thank you So, uh, I'm also a tech startup founder My company top squad connects new and expecting parents with services Which people are in high need of when there are grandparents and extended family can't travel to support them things like lactation consultants and sleep consultants and doulas Car seat installers all done virtually via telehealth. So it's been a crazy time for me During covet as we've pivoted to a hundred percent telehealth offering I was going through a startup accelerator just like really really Like lean into your career type of moment for me And at the same time my husband is a filmmaker. I live here in Los Angeles and hollywood effectively shut down completely In march and has slowly started to reopen a little bit But it's a little scary when you're a startup founder and a starting artist Trying to handle child care and As a breadwinner for my family. It's a lot of pressure And what happened to us is my daughter turned 18 months in march and 18 months is like such a hard age because They don't have the attention span for screen time yet Like they're they are like extremely mobile but not yet very communicative And so we had actually planned to start her in daycare in march And as we know that obviously didn't happen our nanny who we had been using prior to that was quarantine because she was over 70 And obviously we did not want to risk her health And so the first few months we were really really struggling Trying to juggle my work schedule and taking conference calls at home with a really active toddler And we had kind of a participation in a parent and me program at the preschool We were hoping to enroll and in the future which has gone completely Virtual and you know 18 months. Like I said, no screen time attention virtual school does not work for toddlers. So I just really resonate with the The crisis that's happening in america that lisa was talking about I've been meeting with congressmen and congresswomen yesterday that was uh congresswoman karen bass That was brad sherman last week About you know, all of the things that small businesses need in this crisis But really also emphasizing the need for better paid parental leave Family leave for families that just cannot work while juggling Childcare and virtual school and everything else and just more support for working parents There the statistics around a million women leaving the workforce last month I mean, it's just absolutely mind-boggling. It's when impacts our economy for years to come. Yeah, so Um, uh tomorrow, let's go to you. So put all of this in context, you know and and help us understand How is it that we got to this point where parents? Don't expect or demand much in terms of supportive uh policies like paid family leave or Help with child care or flexible work or schedule control or you know practices and and and and workplaces that could make work and care Work so much so much more seamlessly Um, you know kind of help us understand how we got here and how this how covet is shifting them shifting the equation shifting this moment Yeah, thank you for having me on this panel. This is all important work that we're talking about here. Um So for me as a sociologist, I'm always looking at social structures and how the structures are Influencing our individual lives or our group lives as communities and so on So for me, I'm looking at everything structurally and that's how we really got here So, you know, Jennifer just mentioned not having proper maternity leave Or even paternity leave for families That's all part of the structure that we're talking about now. I'm from Canada. So you already know I have a whole different way of looking at Mothers need a year off. Yes, we do Do fathers need a year off? Probably do. Yes Um, there are a lot of things structurally that needed to change prior to the covet hitting and that can still change if we advocate for it Things like universal health care Um, I will hit that one hard We need universal health care so that people who do get sick during covet times or any other kind of time Can get the help that they need so that they're not suffering for any reason not being able to go home to their families And so i'm just because they don't have the resources or just simply dying and leaving their families behind Universal health care would alleviate a lot of the poverty that we see in this country Getting people the preventative health care that they need Getting them the tools the PPEs the everything that they would need in order to combat such a pandemic And even just getting the information to people in a more widespread way So universal health care is one issue that we've always been dealing with That has been pegged socialist and has been pegged Communists and everything else But the reality of it is that america is one of the very few places in the world that still has yet to adopt this universal health care So that's that's one of the big points that we need to discuss also basically I was just going to say like you were talking about you know, um You know this notion of socialism and you know when you look at child care You know and the care economy. I was talking to an advocate and they were saying why is it Socialism at four and below and a public good at five and above, you know So elissa, can we go you know talk with you a little bit, you know like Kind of what is that about that that mentality that you know that young children that there really isn't sort of that You know that that kind of public good or that kind of that sense that this is actually good for families Good for children good for all of us if we come together and support working families Well for me, it's it's always seemed like a no-brainer. Why does suddenly the public school system and public support of families and children start when kids are five and obviously in some places now in St. New York City where we have pre-k three k sometimes That that's changed that those but it never includes infancy and it's still in a lot of places It doesn't include three and four year olds and I mean I think part of it is there's something punitive about attitudes towards women's working that have Trailed us for our history as a country and Whenever it's a young child, you know, there's the sort of Hard as it is to imagine there's the dirty secret of the mother working That means that that's why they need to be cared for by others And I feel like that stigma is part of what is driving something that as well as the economic element And like that's how it is in America You know our our government is always trying to think of ways to not care for its citizens and not care for its Women and its families, but I also do think it's there's something punitive about it Which doesn't make any sense honestly, especially if you are a Hardy capitalist why wouldn't you want all your citizens able to be working and serving their corporate overlords? but instead but there's a lot of There's a lot of punishment involved in it. So What's interesting too is that if I get just I just I do want to just dive in just quickly because this really isn't about Socialism versus capitalism because there's a lot of really great Great examples very dynamic, you know capitalist societies that do have these kind of collective This understanding that that's supporting families as an investment in the future So there's sort of like democratic socialism in the Scandinavian countries Just about every other advanced economy has some kind of paid You know the paid family leave some kind of support for for child care, you know, so I just I did want to just I want to do it with talking about like like right kind of crazy way lefty kind of ideas that not at all We're like Papua New Guinea. I mean that's like that is the level of Desolation that our families are left with You know if you look at the OECD numbers about investment in child care and young and young childhood We're seriously one of the lowest countries in terms of investment and like France and Germany are ahead of us and you know Any decent democracy is sort of basically ahead of us So, I mean, I think a lot of this has to be a reframe And indeed it does it's not doesn't have to be socialist How do we allow women to continue to participate in the economy? I mean, I think that's that's part of the question and that is going to take an investment in child care So jennifer you you were just waving your hand you'd also talk about you know the the numbers that came out just last You know last month that you know more than 800,000 women had dropped out of the workforce. So You know What are your thoughts on that? It's crazy. Well, what I was going to say is I think that it's not even just about the women leaving the workforce There's also structural challenges with the motherhood penalty, right the statistics show that Women career women working moms Are actually punished at work for being moms and trying to juggle, you know, everything that is involved with being The person who often carries the emotional load the mental load for managing most of the dynamics in the home life as well as their career At the same time men are receiving promotions and pay raises When they become fathers and so I think it's it's not just about solving for The child care issues where we don't have like the active hourly moment by moment supervision of our children There is so much of that workload that is falling on women that is impacting our careers in so many other ways There's really a full ripple effect Yeah, so just and if we could go back to you like is that is that it sounds like that's a lot of what you're hearing With your community, um, you know and that they seem to sound so much more energized to to become involved or you know, either vote or You know become in part of a much more engaged You know civil society if you will, you know is is is some of that coming from the pain that jennifer's talking about Yeah, I I think I mean you you framed this panel around kind of this big question about is this movement You know finally coming together, um and and I I feel like at a top level the answer is there's potential there and um, but it's it's but it's also complicated because Right, it's I think the the potential first of all there's been incredible organizing that has already been happening by Leaders grassroots leaders in the child care sector, right? So I want to like I want to overlook the amazing work that people are already doing groups like No, that's actually a really really good point. Yeah Mom's rising family values at work, you know zero to three there are all sorts And I think that's important to call out that there's been good work done in this space for a long time and I think the fact that you know There's been some momentum and you know, they're great proposals that have been put out in this during this pandemic for Stabilizing the child care movement not enough in the heroes act and then a bunch of work done to try to deal with that and so in the midst of chaos lots of really good organizing happening that I think So realistically there will likely be more relief at some point God willing and I think there's a good chance that Support for child care could be part of it at a much different level And that's because of all the organizing that people are doing right now including providers Who are dealing with you know, I see in brooklyn. There's an amazing dynamic network of providers who? and parents who are organizing together despite the fact that they're in Dealing with such huge challenges just trying to keep their child care centers afloat and deal with constantly shifting Blizzard of you know, directives and stuff, but I think at the but the it's also worth noting that For parents right now People are being pulled in really different directions So it's like the moment we're going to see a huge push for support for child care Is not the moment that families half of families are afraid to send their kids to child care right Or to school Right that parents are totally split on whether it feels safe To have your kid in that setting partly because of their own families Especially when you're pregnant, you know, even when your kid's somewhere it's like I'm a high-risk category now Right, right totally and so and so we hear yeah, so we just we And the things that are at the very top of parents agenda who we're talking to It's just financial support. I don't have enough money to make it through the next three months. We need Direct payments. We need rent relief like right, so Yeah, that that's really galvanizing people in this moment and it's not child care specific Because I think I care. I can't even send kids right now. Yeah tomorrow. Yeah, I saw you nodding and you Talk about like universal basic income. That's sort of direct. Yeah, there's basic income There's right the universal healthcare the universal child care all of these things work hand in hand with one another To help alleviate the stress that everybody has felt prior to covid and is now under the thumb of covid So, you know to not talk structurally about things is just ludicrous to me So I'm glad to see that there is some movement in that direction when we talk about potential new administration coming into play But at the end of the day, we have not seen A big enough movement across the board when it comes to administration and pushing these things forward Even though we know they've had success not even in different countries But even when people pilot study them in cities across the usa They have great success, especially the basic income endeavor So I think we really need to push for these structures to change One thing that hasn't been mentioned and I want to mention it because I'm an advocate for it Is special needs children and how parents are dealing with that I have a young son who's seven I have two teenagers a 16 15 year old and then the seven year old who has Down syndrome And just seeing how remote learning changes for him Verses my other two children It's such a big leap because now you have to deal with therapies online Now you have to deal with the cognitive Association with a screen and what does that mean for somebody who has delays and nothing translates the same way So it's really important for us to consider that constituency as well And that that additional stress that parents have when dealing with children who have any kind of special needs Especially those who have physical needs that aren't necessarily always met at home But met outside of the home So there are all these different ways to think about it But I think if we look structurally at what's going on we'll be able to help parents in a significant way If we had those changes structurally Excellent point. So at this point it looks like uh, deja was able to join us We've had some technical difficulties at deja. Are you there? Can you um, can you share your Can you come on we'd love to hear we've been talking about what parents have been struggling with during coveted and whether this could inspire them to Take more action or become more active and In sort of asking and demanding for change or support and I know that you are a member of strolling thunder so Welcome and we'd love to hear your story and and what what sort of drew you to To become active and strolling thunder Hey Can you all hear me? Yeah, we can hear you great. Thank you Okay, thank you for having me. Um, and as she was saying my name is deja reed and um So Yeah, like the whole thing with me wanted to be a part of strunder so and that I I did experience a lot um A difficult and challenging time getting childcare When I first had my son um in 2018 And so it was a difficult time and the challenging time and me as a single mom and not being able to um Go to work and do the things that I need to do to to provide a life for us and you know Not having good quality care for my son and um as my experience went with covet um It just kind of brought a more of a strain and a more difficult situation by my son daycare closing and um It goes actually before the time of my job furloughing us and sending us off because like two to three weeks prior to that So I had to go see pay and um just different things of that nature. And so now it's just A bit of a challenging situation. I want to say it's very challenging as a single mom to be in a position right now. Um To have you know to face the challenges of not having good quality care and um Now i'm kind of position where I found good quality care after months of you know Not being able to find it because my son daycare actually ended up closing down permanently and um Wow, so I finally found someplace to go right and now you know He was there for a few weeks and my job was saying okay I can come back in phase three and they actually just ended up cutting my child care Completely all because of the fact that my last few checks. I haven't had any checks to prove my payment But it's like I can't start working unless I have the child care, right? So now I'm even in a more difficult Predict you know a situation because I can't you know So they didn't make any they didn't make any kind of uh accommodation or uh kind of uh Like recognize that we're in the middle of a pandemic and that you know They weren't willing to work with you or be flexible and Not at all not at all. I called and I was and they cut it off before You know, I even knew about it like after I had since in the pace up Of course in the face of the right zero zero. I'm still employed with my company Because you're technically on furlough, right? So you're still employed even though you're not getting a salary And so and this is the these are for the the child care subsidies to help To help pay for child care. Is this this is what you're referring to? Yes, ma'am. Yes. Yes. So um And so they ended up cutting completely off because of my checks of they're like, okay Well, you're not working and like while I'm going back to work. I just have to find Care for my son and I had to you know, of course my job I have to have me come back and tell me tell me it was clear for me to come back So what finally they cleared me to come back and I can go back to work And now I don't I can't even see my son today care and they're like, oh well You can just pay you just have to pay for that money once you have a paycheck Right, you know, once you have a paycheck saying that you're working But I'm like, how can I thank for it if I'm not working? You know, like I don't have other deals and other things that I have to care of Especially as a single mom. So it's a very challenging time right now for me. Um, I don't And I just found this out actually last week So, um, you know, I thought I was in a on the good track because again I had found a place for him to go where they were actually accepting kids because there was a lot going on where a lot of They cares clothes and then you just finding good quality care for your child, right? It's it's so hard these days Now it's even more of a challenge because you know Everybody they don't know they're not accepting the same amount of numbers that they did have so it was right It was a real challenge for me. So, um, just you know, just kind of Dilling with the whole things and um You know person, you know forward and everything but it is a very challenging time as a parent as a single mom and you know That's in school. I am in school. I'm working and I'm doing other things to try to get to where I need to be But it's just very challenging doing you know doing that with the stressful of with the stress of Not having care for my son in the day So so deja, you're you're you're working you're going to school. You're struggling with child care What is it that you would what is it that you need or would expect? You know what as a as a single parent as any parent here in the in the country, what do you need? What do you want to see change? I would say that you know as I would have thought that they would at least been more understanding to our situation Especially with the pandemic going on. Um, I would you know, I would I would just hope that they would actually listen to people in their stories and you know the time they were in Everybody's not lazy, right? Like everybody's just not wanting to sit at home and live off the government, right? You know, I you know, I must and I you know, I've got to do the things at home just to make you know Make me Like, you know, everybody's not trying to you know, just get over right, you know It's people out here that's truly wanted to make a better life for their families and for their children, you know, and You know, just to have that support Okay No, no, you're you're you're dealing with exactly what we're talking about but we're coming down So, Alyssa, let me go to you for a final kind of a final thought And you're on mute When I'm listening to that, uh, hi Deja. I'm just thinking, um You know Biden does have a plan for a tax credit For parents and I support that but what we really do need is this parental universal basic income That would not have these hoops for people to jump through and waiting for taxation And I think I think that that's the sell really for also for ubi I think for all those, you know, fun nerds out there who are supporting universal basic income I think the the practical Ramifications of having one that's really for parents or or people taking doing care work Disabled or elderly people in their families. Like that's a kind of targeted basic income guarantee that I think could really work So to me that it would be part of the solution and part of what this parent's revolution that indeed Mom's rising and all these other groups and hand in hand Uh, the did some of the domestic work groups have been doing But so this is one of the main things that I think we should be fighting for All right. Well with that, I want to thank all of the panelists. I'm You know, uh, we could go on for hours So I'm sure that this is a conversation that we will continue I want to thank all of the panelists for for coming on and sharing their stories and insights and wisdom I thank all the participants who are listening. I want to thank the new america events team the better life lab team David shulman our producer And at this point, I want to just we'll be back in another month where we'll have another crisis conversation as the crisis continues Sadly and in the meantime wash your hands Stay safe wear a mask And we'll see you in a few weeks