Tacoma mom: Childcare access eludes families like mine with two working parents

Like so many families in Washington state, last year was tough on my family.

In January, I gave birth to my first child. I’m grateful I gave birth before the pandemic because my family could meet my daughter, and my mother helped us during that first month.

The pandemic changed everything. We stopped seeing people outside our household to keep everyone safe. It was hard recovering from birth and adjusting to living with a newborn while isolated, without our families and friends able to support us.

During this time, my husband was finishing graduate school, and I used Washington’s new Paid Family and Medical Leave program.

We were one of the first families to access this benefit, which was a crucial lifeline. Without it, we wouldn’t have had any income until I returned to work, which would have caused a financial crisis.

But there’s much more the state should be doing for working families.

When my leave ended in May, we didn’t have childcare. Even before the pandemic, it was nearly impossible to find care for infants. While I got on a waitlist when I was two months pregnant, the list for that program was more than two years long.

Now, the financial pressures of the pandemic have forced that program to permanently close — along with many others. Even if we somehow found an open spot at another program, there’s no way we could afford the high cost.

So when I returned to work full-time, my husband and I were forced to start trading off childcare ‘shifts,’ leaving us exhausted and overwhelmed.

If we had childcare, he’d likely be working full-time, but since we don’t, he primarily works evenings and on Saturdays. That’s made it more difficult to afford expenses like our student loans.

Still, I know we’re fortunate to be employed, and to afford basics like food and housing. Many families can’t say the same because they lost jobs or were forced to cut back hours because of remote schooling and childcare closures.

Washington’s working families are facing an emergency. We need our state legislators to stand up for us. I hope you’ll join me in calling on them to press for urgently needed funds to save childcare and direct cash assistance via a Working Families Tax Credit.

It’s also past time we fix our state’s regressive tax system so that we can pay for the deep need in our communities. There’s no reason my family should be taxed at a higher rate than Washington’s billionaires.

We need a more progressive tax structure so we can create an adequate social safety net — not just during COVID-19, but in normal times, too.

I hope we start this year with state lawmakers taking steps to rebuild our economy so it works for working families like mine.

If we work together, we can save childcare, protect families’ financial security and make it possible for everyone to thrive.

Kate Ginn is a licensed clinical social worker and has been program manager for Help Me Grow Pierce County since 2018. She’s a member of MomsRising. and lives in Tacoma’s Hilltop neighborhood.