- While many parents struggle to afford
childcare , childcare workers face low wages and long days. - These moms say that work in childcare left them emotionally depleted or made their family sick.
Carmel Young always wanted to work in childcare. She went to college and then joined the military. And after her military service, she got a job at an early-care nursery to work with young children.
"A lot of people recognize that I am overqualified educationally to just continue with childcare, but I didn't mind it one bit," said Young, 36, who lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. "It was the most wholesome job I have ever had, even more so than the military."
But Young soon realized that - like the military - working in childcare took a toll. She worked long, unpredictable hours and had intense days that left her drained. At the beginning of 2021, she quit her job.
"I loved my coworkers, my bosses, and the children, but I'd be coming home at the end of the day with nothing left to give," Young said. "The thought of coming home five days a week for the next 30 years and feeling like this makes me feel trapped, and I don't want to live like that anymore."
High expectations and low pay
Young wasn't alone. The pandemic highlighted that childcare was in a crisis. While many parents struggled to afford childcare, paying an average of 13% of their incomes for the service, childcare workers were paid less than 98% of Americans in other professions, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said. Nationally, the average wage for a childcare worker was $12.24 an hour, or about $25,460 a year.
Young said her family was financially stable, and that she was never in the job for the money.
"It really was all about the kids for me," she added. "Getting paid was just a bonus."
But for many childcare workers - the vast majority of whom are women, often moms - income from childcare is essential to making ends meet for their family.
Gemma Hartley, the author of "Fed Up: Emotional Labor, Women, and the Way Forward," experienced the low pay for herself when she tried to open her own daycare. Hartley's mother had run an in-home daycare for 40 years, and Hartley thought following in her footsteps would provide a solid income, while allowing her to care for her own young children. That wasn't the reality.
"I will never forget my accountant's face the first year after I opened my daycare," Hartley said.
"He was sure I had made a mistake because I was working over 40 hour weeks, not including prep and cleaning, and earning less than poverty wages. Some weeks, when I only had part-time spots filled, my hourly came out to under $5."
In order to make a more livable wage, many childcare workers take as many kids as possible, but that didn't feel possible to Hartley.
An onslaught of illness
The biggest reason Hartley decided to get out of childcare - and eventually pursue writing - was because the daycare was starting to take a toll on her family's physical
"I couldn't take the constant onslaught of illness tearing through the house," she said. Hartley's baby had pneumonia, influenza, croup, and hand, foot, and mouth disease all before his first birthday. Although Hartley was frustrated with parents bringing in sick kids, she knew they felt like they had no choice.
"The parents themselves really needed more flexible work situations that allowed them to make that decision easily, and I could tell many didn't have it," she said. "They knew they'd be getting a call when the Tylenol wore off, but not showing up at work in the first place wasn't an option."
Easy to walk away from
Like Young, Elizabeth Manly, a former kindergarten teacher in Indiana, came home depleted at the end of a workday.
"I constantly felt like I was failing at school and at home," she said. "I would be so tired from the day that it was difficult to engage, or I would still be overwhelmed from my never-ending to-do list that I would have a hard time being fully present. I never felt like I was doing a great job at either place: home or school."
That reached a crescendo during the pandemic. Manly tried to make herself available to her students' parents by text or email, all while taking care of her own 2-year-old, who was not able to be in daycare because of the pandemic. Manly realized it was time to stop teaching.
She said, "It kept taking an increasing amount of time away from my family and offered a small enough salary that was easy to walk away from."