Parents Struggle to Balance Work and Childcare during Pandemic
BALDWIN: "This is not working." That is what one mother of two says about the struggle to balance work and childcare since the start of the pandemic. And she is far from alone. Parents all across the country are crushed under the weight of balancing or not, being a parent, at sudden at home teacher and employee with the start of the new year just weeks away. Some areas - in some areas, it could all just get so much worse. So far, Congress has approved $3.5 billion that has then been dispersed under the CARES Act for the childcare industry. But the National Women's Law Center says, the industry needs to receive $9.6 billion a month. Joining me now, Keisha Hudson, an attorney working from home while caring for her two little children. So, Keisha, welcome.</s>KEISHA HUDSON, SENIOR LEGAL COUNSEL, THE JUSTICE COLLABORATIVE: Thank you. Thank you, Brooke. I'm very happy to be here.</s>BALDWIN: So, let's dive in. I know it is summer. That means it is a bit of a reprieve from you know Zoom classes with your 8-year-old daughter. I know you also have a toddler. That is all enough to keep your hands full on a good day, on a normal day. And then obviously add to the fact that you're a full-time attorney. We're living in the midst of a pandemic. How do you balance it all or do you?</s>HUDSON: I don't know that I'm balancing it very well. I think I speak for a lot of parents, particularly working mothers who are really kind of bearing the brunt of childcare, all of the research now and all of the surveys that have done have shown that women are doing more housework, on top of all of our other responsibilities as well as parenting, teaching and trying to work. So, I don't know that there is a balance there. And I certainly haven't been able to find one.</s>BALDWIN: Listen, I appreciate your honesty and I think a lot of people at home, especially women, right, are nodding along with you. Can you just do me a favor, Keisha, and quickly run through the most challenging part of your day, trying to do it all.</s>HUDSON: You know, with a 2-year-old, you know my day starts early. It started at 4:30 this morning when she woke up, wide awake and ready to start the day. There was no getting her back to sleep. And in the beginning of the shutdown when you know when she was home, she was not in a childcare setting, we had to pull her out. And my daughter was home because her school was closed. Those first three hours of the morning were incredibly hectic because it's monitoring her but also realizing that you know at 5:00 a.m. I have a two-hour window before my 8-year-old gets up and virtual learning has to start. And so, from about 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. there is this frantic rush to get started working, trying to get some of my tasks accomplished before my daughter gets up and before I have to turn my attention to supervising her learning. So, those first two hours I had to do all of the things. It is monitoring the 2-year-old, and starting to do my work, and getting breakfast on the table, and opening up all of the links her teacher had sent that day to see what she had to get done and then once she was up making sure they're both eating breakfast, and then jumping into what ends up being a chaotic day.</s>BALDWIN: And then by the way, you're also an attorney. Remind us what your work is.</s>HUDSON: So, I'm an attorney with the Justice Collaborative. We do criminal justice reform work on a local state and national level.</s>BALDWIN: So, it is heavy stuff. It is heavy stuff is my point. I'm already exhausted listening to your - to the first couple of hours of your day. Let me ask you this, because I know that just in the last, let's say, 10 days there's been conflicting guidance from the federal government on looking towards this fall. Right? We've heard the president say it should be safe for schools to reopen, the CDC strongly recommends it. But then listening to Dr. Deborah Birx this morning from the Coronavirus Task Force, she's saying actually we don't totally know much about COVID and kids under the age of 10 in terms of spreading the virus. So just given all these question marks, Keisha, but also given the weight on you as a mom/makeshift homeschool teacher/attorney, do you want to send your daughter back to school this fall?</s>HUDSON: I don't. And I don't because I don't think we know enough. I don't think that the federal government has prioritized the funding that needs to be directed to - to our childcare facilities and to public schools. My daughter's in a public school. We love our public school. We're big supporters of public education. But there has not by any means been the investment into making sure those places of learning, that public schools have the funding that they need and the support and the resources and the PPE for all the teachers, the testing. There is no routine testing, none of that has been made clear. And, again, on top of that all the unanswered questions about having kids sit in a classroom for eight hours a day, breathe in the same air. They're children. They're not going to social distance. They're not going to be great about keeping their masks on. They're not going to be great about making sure they're washing their hands and sanitizing regularly. It's a lot of unknown questions. It's a lot of stress on not just the students and the parents but also our teachers who are not getting nearly enough support to kind of get ready for the school year.</s>BALDWIN: You can say that again. Keisha Hudson, I just thank you. And good luck and I know so many parents are sitting there listening to you thinking, yep, yep, me too. We're all in this together. Thank you.</s>HUDSON: Yes, we are.</s>BALDWIN: Thank you.</s>HUDSON: Thank you.</s>BALDWIN: A hospital in Southern Texas overrun with coronavirus patients. And now the county is taking a drastic action to stop the spread. How a new stay-at-home order is affecting thousands of people, coming up.