- I'm a mom to three kids under the age of 6, and I know how expensive childcare can be.
- My husband and I have never been away from our children together.
Frida Baby, the brand known for products like Windi — which helps babies pass gas — and the snot-sucker every parent swears by, announced that they are giving $2,160 to five lucky winners so they can get away from their children.
The campaign website says this money is intended to help cover the costs of a nanny or flying in the grandparents so they can look after the kids. The brand will also add a pair of noise-canceling headphones for each parent so they don't need "to listen to other people's kids on the way there either."
While I get the campaign is supposed to be fun, as a parent who has never been away from her children, it also kind of depresses me. It's a reminder of how tight our finances are, and also the constant juggle parents are dealing with, not only in terms of money but trying to find available childcare.
We have no family nearby
My oldest was born five years ago while we lived in New York City. At the time, we had two grandparents in Argentina, one in Rhode Island, and more family in Pittsburgh. When my husband and I hired our nanny, we joked that she was our third grandma. Since we didn't have any family members nearby, she became part of our family.
She always insisted we go out on date nights. We rarely did for two reasons: We were exhausted from the grind of working in New York, and it was incredibly expensive to pay overtime after an entire day of nannying. So we reserved date nights for special occasions.
We then had twins during the pandemic, and that meant basically no extra help. Our first date night post-twins happened after they were both walking and talking. We had moved to Maine by that point and didn't know anyone who could take care of infant twins, so we waited until my parents came to visit and we left after putting everyone down. We rushed to dinner and back, stressing that if anyone woke up, my older parents might not hear them.
Finding childcare is a never-ending problem
Now that my kids are older, we go on more date nights. Yet my husband and I have never been on a trip without kids. He's taken solo trips, and I've taken solo trips, but that's it.
According to a report released in June by Ready Nation, 22% of the population of Maine lives in "childcare deserts." It costs an average of $11,960 to send a child to daycare in the state. That is almost $36,000 per year for three kids during the work day — ending at 3 pm — without taking into account extended later care, date nights, or other activities.
But it's not just finances that get in the way. There's little to no availability for babysitters, and we end up having to make plans months in advance to find someone because every other parent we know is also desperately trying to find reliable care for their kids.
Frida Baby products solve baby problems, but at a brand level, the brand wants to solve parent problems. They anecdotally found the lack of childcare for parents to travel to be an issue among its employees. Frida Baby then conducted a nationwide survey to see if it was a bigger issue.
The survey only included 140 people, but the results showed that 60% of parents of kids under 3 — like me — had never taken a trip away from their children.
While Frida Baby's campaign is touching on something parents in the US need, it can't solve the problem. What parents actually need is affordable and reliable childcare.