Democracy Dies in Darkness

Parenting comes with challenges, but navigating day care was nearly impossible

Elizabeth Warren’s universal child care proposal is the most exciting idea I’ve heard from a candidate

Perspective by
Lily contributor
March 10, 2019 at 9:24 a.m. EDT

I had a lot of cute ideas as a mom-to-be. I would draw, child on my lap, while they scrawled happily with a crayon. Truly, I would be a wonderful artist and mother. The reality, which probably should have been obvious, was that babies don’t make great studio mates. I soon fell behind on my work. It was clear we needed child care, but it was either unaffordable (a nanny) or involved a lengthy wait list (any day care in Seattle). On top of every other stressful part of parenting, navigating child care was almost more than we could handle.