Mama’s Burden: The Struggle of Childcare
I’m a pragmatic person. I like to get to the root of why things are the way they are. When the pandemic first hit, it caused me to think more about what it means to be a mother in our society. Despite the rhetoric of sweet sentiments of motherhood (often dished out during Mother’s Day), our country hasn’t really done a great job of supporting mothers. Particularly, mothers of color (MOC). It was reported millions of women had to drop out of the workforce, primarily due to childcare. The struggles around childcare has been the Achilles heel of most working women. It was exacerbated during the lockdown, as caregivers found themselves having to homeschool children, while they also worked from home. The ‘double duty’ of mothers (household and outside work responsibilities), turned into a triple duty. In some cases, quadruple duty, if elderly or more vulnerable family members became sick with the COVID-19 virus. Their care also became another task for mothers. Yet, with all these burdens being placed on caregivers, there was limited societal support.
MOC were especially at a disadvantage. Ms. magazine discussed this in the article, “Women Are Still Disproportionately Suffering from Pandemic Unemployment.” It is noted that childcare is the overwhelming reason why mothers have not bounced back as quickly regarding work opportunities. MOC are at the forefront of this issue. I’m a Black single mama. I spent the past year unemployed. I had to leave my position, as the demand of return to the office became the mantra of employers. It didn’t matter we were still in the throes of the second wave of the virus (delta corona). It didn’t matter schools were still closing left and right due to students/teachers getting sick, or staff shortages. It didn’t matter that many childcare places were closed or limiting enrollment for safety.
I had no one to help with before/after school care. The burden was on me. It’s still on me. I still have not found reliable childcare, almost three years later. Then the economic stress of not working. The biggest fear was losing housing. I was lucky and qualified for pandemic housing assistance. There was also some relief with the child tax credit checks. Of course, those were snatched away, despite the fact it was proven it helped caregivers tremendously with day to day living expenses. The pandemic years have not been kind to MOC.
I’m a lover of books. Recently, I read Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change, by Angela Garbes. Garbes discussed how the pandemic impacted her as a mother. Overall, the book delves into the challenges faced by mothers, whether married or not. As a MOC (Filipino-American), Garbes gave voice to the unique barriers of women from her community and MOC outside of it. Her overall argument was that our society needs to acknowledge that childrearing is work. That MOC are the most economically exploited and there tends to be no respect for the essential labor they provide.
The pandemic showed me we still have a long way to go in empowering and supporting caregivers.
