One thought, I visited several child care centers this past year to evaluate. There was only one I would be comfortable leaving my children at. It was $4000 per month. All of the others had issues with hitting, biting, sickness, and if that sort of thing seems common to parents, poor nutrition. The schools didn't allow outside food. Only served water to drink. And meals looked like a plain dinner roll, 1/4 cup fruit, noodles, no protein. So $48k yearly or child prison.

I taught preschool for a private daycare. Staff were mostly young women (many related to owners), just out of high school, very little training. Work culture consisted of eye rolling and group shaming instead of individual correction/retraining & fear of owner's spouse.

We spent well over $250,000 on childcare for our children. How are families supposed to also save for retirement and college?

I’m 2 weeks PP, I am approved for disability due to pregnancy (this is how we get benefits in CA) yet I’m expected to go to work at 8 weeks! It’s ridiculous I have to hand my breast fed infant child to someone else to take care of.

Same in UK. Same.

Not sure how to fix it but you are spot on with the assessment.

It’s not a hot take, it’s true

No one is making you pay for the most expensive daycare. There's plenty of options. If you can't afford any of those options, then you can't afford to have kids. Personal responsibility, kiddo. It's not a difficult concept, you just refuse to take accountability for your actions.

It would be fixable if the goal was helping families to thrive. In our current state of existence, that is the last thing on the minds of those developing policies.

I mean, we're not supposed to. Start at our maternal and infant mortality rate then cue the school shootings if they manage to get to kindergarten. Hopefully it doesn't happen after lunch since they won't be getting enough food to make a good sprint for it.