It will not matter… Why would anyone listen to me… I do not have time… Politics is for other, more IMPORTANT people…

The list of reasons why people in the child care field do not/will not/cannot advocate goes on and on. Many of us do not feel like we can get everyone else to care and make the changes we all desperately need.

Let’s be honest, in the United States, our system of early care and education and child care works well for absolutely no one. To that I say, “What if… What if we were respected for our expertise, caring, and responsiveness to children and their families? What if people understood how play-based environments lay the foundation for the ‘selfs’ (self-esteem, self-awareness, self-control) and the ‘Cs’ (critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and curiosity)? What if we were paid according to the value we bring to a child’s life and the broader implications of our work on the economy? What if we treated child care as critical to our nation’s infrastructure?”

Almost every other developed country invests in early childhood education, and the results are happier, more productive, healthier citizens, who contribute far more to the tax base than the average American. (Not to mention these countries experience lower incarceration rates, lower K-12 special education and remedial costs, and fewer behavior interventions.)

Meantime, let’s look at the numbers. (Brace yourselves.) There are 50 percent fewer family child care programs operating in the United States than there were a decade ago. In Wisconsin, where I live, that figure is a staggering 69 percent. Group center workforce turnover is over 30 percent. Three out of four of us with early childhood education degrees have walked away from the field completely. The reasons are simple: low profits and zero benefits (all while performing as a highly educated workforce).

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We cannot pay ourselves or our staff more without pushing families out financially. Thus, we charge the highest we think we can and take out what is necessary to operate the business. Whatever is left is our wage. But this math simply does not work. 

Family child care providers make less than minimum wage. Let me break it down for you. Weekly, we work 50 hours with kids and another 10-30 (yeah, you read that right) marketing, accounting, cleaning, cooking, grocery shopping, filling out paperwork, undertaking professional development, working with families, searching out support for the children we care for with special needs, advocating, and so much more. Somehow, we are also supposed to have time to spend with our own families and maybe eke out a minute or two to read a non-child care related book just for fun! Or collapse for a nap. No, I do not get to nap when the kids do, did you see my list?

Reading that list of my work exhausts me. It angers me. It makes me sad. But, it also motivates me. Spine stiffening motivates me. Why? Because I matter, YOU matter, WE matter. We are the voices for these children and these families, but most importantly, for US. Without us, there is no one to care for the kids, so that our economy can continue to operate. The pandemic proved that. We deserve to be paid with more than hugs and empty platitudes. We are at a tipping point, friends. Join me in advocating loudly and proudly because WE matter.