Caregiving Crisis: Solving caregiving is as essential as fixing roads
Caregiving portion of Biden's recovery plan gets pushed to the 'second half,' many argue it's a 'make-or-break' moment for women
Hey everyone,
I’m introducing what I hope will be a regular feature showcasing caregivers in their own words. Caregivers need to tell their stories to normalize and shed light on what’s going on to pave the path for change. That’s what Valerie and Laura Jarrett said in a MamaDen session last month, and I truly believe it. Stories can inform, stir empathy and stoke change. In these stories, we’re not going to talk self-care routines or tips to make it all work. Going without sleep, for example, is not something we want to glorify. Instead, we’ll be talking about what our lives are like. What we’re juggling, how we do it, and how exhausting it all is.
So meet Caitrin. She’s a colleague and friend in New Jersey who is due this month with her fourth (fourth!) child…ages five and under. On her Instagram and in our interactions, she does not sugarcoat the struggle and I respect that so much. Here’s an example:
I’ve been struck by how her upcoming maternity leave will be a break from the madness. That’s how chaotic life is now for so many caregivers. Yes, there’s a baby bust going on (see below), but producing another child is actually a pathway to slow down and pause for a little bit. And that’s if you even qualify for parental leave in our country. Ugh. I’d love to say we sat down virtually together, but we all know that’s not happening. Between kids, work and oh the PANDEMIC, and everything else in between, we caught up via email. Here’s our conversation:
Q - So, having another kid will actually be a break?
A - Yes. If I wasn't about to go out on maternity leave, I don't know how I'd continue managing work and childcare at the pace it's been for the last 12 months. Something would have to give, and it'd probably be my sanity. My husband and I are viewing maternity leave as a desperately needed "break" and the light at the end of the tunnel, when we're not both laptops out, on deadlines and calls at all hours of the morning, night and weekend, while also having three young kids at home without adequate childcare.
Q - What's your child(care) situation right now?
A - We have a 5, 3 and 1 year old — none of them have had full time care since March 2020. As of just a few weeks ago, they're up to 4 half days a week in school, but they were at 2 half days most of the 2020-2021 year. For the half-days when they are in their respective schools, they have different start and end times by an hour, leaving us about 2 hours in the morning after the last drop off before we have to start the mid-day pick-ups. We had a more regular babysitter in fall 2020, but she went back to college this semester. 2021 has been much harder for us than 2020 in many ways because it's been a rotation of piecemeal baby-sitter coverage, none of whom are available all the days/hours we need. (I've spent HOURS searching for full time care; NO ONE was available, probably because every other dual-working family had already scooped them up earlier in the pandemic.) Each of the babysitters AND the various schools have had closures/issues with COVID where they were unable to provide childcare for two weeks at a time, leaving us scrambling. My husband started a new job at the start of the pandemic (great timing!) and he'll be the first to admit he cannot multitask, so all of the care coordination has fallen to me throughout the last year. I have spent hours upon hours looking for new babysitters, interviewing/"onboarding" new people, coordinating hours/schedules/expectations, paying them, etc. On our best day, we have a solid 6 hours of childcare - when we're both working usually a minimum 10 hour workday, but often much longer days than that. Given age and health issues, our nearby family has been unable to help at all.
Q - How do you cope?
A- You know that saying, "If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it"? In a weird way, I've never been more productive — I'm in "get shit done" hyper-drive mode. Because so many things are out of my control, I've almost obsessively focused on everything I can control. The house has never been cleaner and more organized, I've read 18 books and exercised every single day since January, I have birthday cards written and mailed 6 weeks in advance, I haven't missed a work deadline. And I'm effing exhausted. I have a feeling once I'm on maternity leave, the crisis/survival mode mentality will end, the pendulum will swing in the other direction and I'll look back and say, "How the hell did we keep our head above water the last year? I never want to be that stretched or stressed again."
Q - What is your top gif to describe your feelings these days?
A - Physically, mentally, emotionally - but still having to keep your shit together and smile through it all (especially being 9 months pregnant!)
Thank you, Caitrin. Thank you for sharing your story. Wishing you and your husband all the best for the relaxing maternity leave you need. (Healthy baby, safe birth, too.)
Have a story or know someone who does? Please message me. And thanks to you all for reading. I can’t wait to feature more of your stories. And a housekeeping note: It’s spring. Spring!1 I’m going to shift to publishing every other week, to give time for being outside. And for the news cycle to give us some heft to talk about. We’ll publish next on April 16.2 Hang in there and see you soon.
What To Know About the Caregiving Crisis This Week
NEWS WATCH: WEEKLY ROUNDUP — Keeping tabs on legislation, regulation and conversation:
Biden’s massive economic recovery package pushes child- and elder-care to the second round, setting up what some are calling a ‘make or break’ moment for women. Details are expected later this month on this part of the package, which also includes healthcare, CNBC reports. The first portion of the $2 trillion plan involves investments in infrastructure and manufacturing, although $400 billion is being allotted for caregiving for aging and disabled Americans, CNN reports. Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), a single working mom, and members of women's organizations say Biden must follow through on campaign promises to help women and all caregivers. Putting the bulk of this in the second-half of the plan means there may be less money and less goodwill in Congress to pass it. That’s a mistake, Porter says. The caregiving economy is a form of infrastructure, she told CNBC this week.
“Childcare is just as essential to people being able to do their job as a road or a bridge to get them there.” Porter said of workers, adding “The people who do the important work of giving care, whether to seniors in nursing homes or child-care providers, these are infrastructure workers every bit as much as construction workers.”
Also to know about the recovery proposal this week:
The WSJ reports that plans are still shaping up but insiders say it's expected the administration will lean on Biden's campaign proposal to spend $775 billion on caregiving over 10 years. Options in play would include free pre-kindergarten for all 3- and 4-year-olds for low- and middle-income families, pay increases for child-care workers subsidies for child-care and after-school programs, and resources for elderly care.
Such investments would create two million new jobs a year and produce $220 billion of economic activity annually, TIME'S UP President and CEO Tina Tchen told Cheddar earlier this month. In addition, private businesses themselves are finally taking an interest in helping employees with caregiving, recognizing there is true business impact, she said. They may not wait for legislation.
Coalition of caregiving advocacy groups launches $20 million campaign ahead of infrastructure bill, the 19th reports. The #CareCantWait coalition, which includes the National Domestic Workers Alliance, TIME'S UP, the National Women's Law center and more, plans to mobilize members to pressure Congress to pass the Biden plan. The money will be spent on ads and on-the-ground actions in states including Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Georgia. They're asking for the upcoming legislation to include: $450 billion in Medicaid home and community-based services, guarantee at least 12 weeks of paid leave to new parents or those who have a personal or family illness and to cap child care at 7% of family income.
Caregiving jobs should be recognized for what they are: essential, write Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Mary Kay Henry, international president of the Service Employees International Union. The pair say in a CNN Opinion column that the bulk of direct care workers (including personal care aides, home health aides, nursing assistants and more) are women (86%) and people of color (59%).
“The under-valuing of caregiving work is directly linked to racism and sexism, so it's not surprising that caregiving is consistently — and wrongly — devalued as 'unskilled' and 'women's work,’” they write.
They call for more legislation to better fund caregiving and ensure its workers are paid a living wage, paid time off and pathways to citizenship.
LinkedIn says OK, you can put 'stay-at-home parent' or 'caregiver' on your resume now. The platform update comes after a post on Medium last month calling for such changes to value the work caregivers are doing now and help them when they decide to return to the workforce. Such a change will also "encourage transparent dialogue about employment gaps," wrote Heather Bolen, a freelancer and stay-at-home mom (according to her LinkedIn profile), who called for LinkedIn to "remedy its implicit bias against women." Previously, any job updates had to be linked to a company, but not anymore. Also effective this week, users can easily add gender pronouns to their profiles. LinkedIn plans further changes in coming months to provide even more flexibility and language for people who have stopped working for a period of time.
Will the return to work be gendered? Probably. Axios reports that surveys at companies across the U.S. show men are likely to return to offices sooner and for more days than women. This could exacerbate the gender wage gap because "64% of managers believe that office workers are higher performers than remote workers, and in turn are likely to give in-office workers a higher raise than those who work from home," said Brian Kropp, research firm Gartner's head of human resources practice.
Bottom line: There is going to be a lot of pressure on this caregiving infrastructure plan. Will this finally force the media to recognize it for the economic crisis it is? Grab your popcorn and picket signs.
PANDEMIC GUTS GENDER GAP — The pandemic means women will have to wait decades longer to close the gender gap. The World Economic Forum says in a new report that worldwide, it will now take 135.6 years for women to achieve parity with men. That's 35 more years than the figure WEF gave just last year, Axios reports. Parity is defined across four pillars: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment. And yes, the slowdown is directly related to the toll of the pandemic on caregivers, researchers say.
Look at the sobering breakdown by region. Women in Western Europe are most close to parity (a mere half-century away), while women in South Asia are nearly two centuries out.
"The pandemic is likely to have a scarring effect on future economic opportunities for women, risking inferior reemployment prospects and a persistent drop in income. Gender-positive recovery policies and practices can tackle those potential challenges," the report says. Such policies would include investing in the care sector, insuring equal access to leave for men and women, closing occupational segregation by gender and offering reskilling policies to people in mid-career.
Bottom line: I know spring break is either coming up or here for many of us. So here's the link to the full 405-page WEF report. Welcome.
BABY BUST TO BIRTH ECONOMIC WOES — Remember in those early pandemic days how everyone expected a baby boom? People would be cooped up, bored, doing a lot of Netflixing? The assumption was…babies in 2021? Those of us caring for young kids had one answer to that:
And that’s exactly what is (not) happening. The anticipated baby boom has turned into a bust. Major economies from Italy to France, Singapore to the U.S., are seeing or anticipating declining birth rates as people were either prevented (social distancing) or dissuaded (global economic crisis) from having babies.
This means smaller future workforces, which can drag down everything from economic output to taxpaying infrastructures. Japan’s economy has been suffering for years as it faces an aging crisis. Asia and Europe are expected to face ‘particularly crippling’ economic effects due to this pandemic-inspired baby bust, Bloomberg reports. Fertility rates are plunging — France has its lowest birth rate since World War II and Chinese authorities note 15% fewer registrations for babies. East Asia is now facing a population drop 10 years earlier than expected.
In the U.S., a Brookings Institution report says to expect 300,000 fewer births this year. December births likely fell 7.3% in the U.S., according to data from 29 states provided to CBS. Even without lower birth rates, experts were already predicting U.S. retirees would outnumber workers by 2030. And now, economists are bracing for lower economic productivity and fewer workers to contribute to the tax base, which will stress Social Security benefits. It also means more stressed caregivers, who will be dwarfed by the elderly Baby Boomer population.
Policies to help promote births include expanding access to affordable childcare and generous paid family leave, the Brookings authors write in the New York Times. That’s exactly what’s happening in Germany, where the birth rate edged up 0.8% in December-January. Economists say it could be due to its Kurzarbeit furlough scheme (supporting jobs and incomes while unemployment rose), the Financial Times says. Germany’s generous childcare and parental leave policies have previously been credited with helping boost fertility rates above EU averages. Some benefits of paid parental leave aren't apparent for decades. "We need to understand that. It's better to think of this as an investment a country makes in its people," Maya Rossin-Salater, an associate professor of health policy at Stanford's School of Medicine told Bloomberg.
Bottom line: Fewer babies, more problems. If caregivers felt more supported and stable, they’d likely feel differently about having more kids. Expect this to be a Full-Fledged Issue if not this decade, then one coming up. This is one of the many reasons I get so upset about this crisis and the way it’s being covered. Yes, we’re tired now. But collectively, we’re all screwed later on by the lack of infrastructure for caregiving now. Society has to support families to keep jobs/productivity/tax base growing.
WHY DID THE CAREBEAR CROSS THE ROAD? — We’ve all been there. This Parent Bear3 struggles mightily to get four cubs across the road in Connecticut in a video that went viral this week. You can’t see the bear’s ears, but I’m assuming she/he was on a work call, too.
Signing off
Thanks, as always, for reading. Please send feedback, articles, gifs, screaming mom memes. If you find value in this newsletter, please spread the word.
Caregiving Crisis is a newsletter written by Emily Fredrix Goodman. We aim to publish every other week but other things may get in the way.
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