Working parents who go without school or camp for six months are about to take another hit: rising childcare costs.
Otherwise, with school-age children renting sitters or paying them for online classes they would not need if their children were at school. Some set up tutors or switch to private schools that plan to open for personal learning. Alders with younger children increase themselves for potentially higher charges at the day of their day, punishing them to pay for protective gear and extra cleaning.
Childcare and its costs may seem incidental in a global pandemic, but they are integral to the economy. For individual families, higher childcare expenses can range from difficult to financially debilitating. Rising costs separate money from purchases other than investments, and many working parents say childcare costs prevent them from saving for a home. Yet without child care, parents are less productive at work – not to mention more stressed and tired.
“Here’s the deal,” said Misty Heggeness, an economist who wrote about the impact of the pandemic on working mothers for the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. “If you care about U.S. economic growth … this should be one of the first areas you care about.”
When schools closed in the spring, parents began sharing a piece of ad-hoc care, and working late at night or putting their children in front of the TV all day. Many parents who work frontline jobs, from bank tellers to doctors, do not agree with the option. Some parents have dropped out of work altogether.
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