Casting aside everything and everyone in their way, our leaders keep pushing the bounds of humanity in the blind pursuit of restarting our economy moribund from the effects of two months of coronavirus lockdown. From the start, refugees and asylum-seekers were tossed back across the border or – along with others stuck in the criminal justice system – left to languish in overcrowded detention centers in violation of basic social distancing standards of safety. Next came the cruel and heartless suggestion that our elders should be willing to die for the sake of opening our economy sooner rather than later. Then it was the meat packing (and health care) workers who were deemed essential, yet disposable enough not to provide adequate personal protective equipment and the ability to stay home if sick.

Now, in a complete and utter derilection of responsible policymaking, our so-called leaders are talking about sacrificing children on the altar of the economy because they cannot even imagine implementing a pandemic plan designed to open the economy in a way to keep people alive and healthy. (Spoiler alert: A sound pandemic plan should use the basic science-based combination of testing, contact tracing, and isolation with a properly staged opening of businesses … and eventually schools.)

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French primary schools – assigned play spaces

Today in Georgia, Kemp announced that summer camps can open – a mind-boggling suggestion given the continuing numbers of coronavirus infected and deaths in the state. This year, I was particularly well-organized and pre-paid for four weeks of camps, but thankfully had already requested refunds prior to that announcement. Requiring a test before enrollment in camp provides no assurance that a child will not become infected afterwards. Taking everyone’s temperature daily provides no assurance that an asymptomatic child cannot spread the virus. Camp guidelines that require the same testing and temperature checks for staff also provide no assurance that staff cannot transmit the virus. Even social distancing and mask-wearing standards provides no assurance that children (especially young ones like my twin kindergarteners) who have been isolated from friends and classmates for two months will have the self-control to keep their social distance, and the patience to keep a face masks on as the summer temperatures rise. Never mind the pressures on staff and parents alike to ignore signs of illness if it means missing the ability to work. And never mind that once a family sends a child to camp, they are even less likely to hold the line on other interactions with extended family and neighborhood children.

The risk to children themselves may be less than to others, though some children are immunocompromised and new reports indicate COVID-19 complications for a yet-to-be-identified profile of children. Nevertheless, all children live with one or more adults who have a varying degree of susceptibility to coronavirus. So children – especially for those with mild or no symptoms – pose a greater risk of being vectors for the disease. In the current environment, it is easy to see how they could quickly suffer as either (or both) victim and perpetrator of the spreading pandemic.

Parents On Our Own: New Burdens, No Support

From Day One of this COVID-19 lockdown, children and the parents or others who care for them have been invisible to policy makers. Seemingly without any plan on how to support parents, an estimated 54 million children were sent home from schools and daycare centers. The shock and awe of our mid-March pandemic lockdown felt very different for those with children and those without. And the economic fissures of the haves and have-nots became exponentially compounded by the abrupt switch from brick-and-morter schools to “distance learning” dependent on technology and parents’ capacity to implement the learning curriculum. Prior to the shutdown, parents depended on schools for educational content, life skills development, mealtime supervision, time outdoors, social interaction, transportation, special education services, school-based counselling, extracurricular education, and even meals and other family support. From one day to the next, that all vanished. Gone too was the network of outside caregivers who provided backup assistance afterhours, when kids get sick or on teacher days and holidays. No more in-person therapy appointments for children with special needs. No more enrichment, sports, educatonal and entertainment venues to fill the children’s minds and free time.

In an instant, parents were on their own. Those without children filled time made available by furloughs or saved by no-commute work from home by cycling through Netflix series, catching up with friends by phone or Skype, finishing home projects, or learning new skills. Meanwhile, parents added 6-12 hours of weekday childcare and education responsiblities – and countless hours of preparation and reporting back to teachers and schools who piled on detailed lesson plans and requirements for the students. A crushing burden of expectations with little to no support. All in addition to the parents’ other family and individual responsibilities and needs for health, safety, and financial well-being.

Invisible Children: Not Seen, Not Heard

Perhaps I have missed it, but there seems to be no sign of a student movement, of children’s voices on what is happening to children and how they feel about it. In recent years, I have been inspired by the youth activism on seemingly unmovable issues like gun control and climate change. So far I have not seen or heard from children. In my neighborhood, they seem to have all but disappeared. They show up online for the one hour of teacher-led “classtime” four days a week that is the shadow of what “school” used to be. Yet, my kids’ classmates show little interest in online playdates, nor has anyone outside our family suggested one. The impact of these times will be mighty on our little ones. We have yet to hear the stories while we are still in the midst of the pandemic. They are starting to trickle out (a few mentions here and there of withdrawal, sadness, anger, unruly behavior, and even suicide), but I expect a deluge in time. The story is theirs and is yet to be written.

Gender Dynamics and the Unpaid Care Economy

As a gender specialist, I always include a module on gender budgeting that delves into the issue of how the unpaid care economy scews our policymaking. For decades, the World Bank has recognized but struggled to quantify the value of the unpaid care work women typically do. This includes the care, feeding and educating of children and household work that facilitates employment such as laundry, food preparation, maintaining household finances, etc. From an economics perspective, the failure to account for unpaid care work means that its supply seems to be fully elastic. In other words, no matter what you do, the work will still get done. In reality, all work comes at a cost – money, time, opportunity, sleep, sanity, quality, quantity, results. Gender equality is a still an aspiration in the United States, despite the rhetoric or self-delusion otherwise. Women still take on more of the housework and care responsibilities in families, and this pandemic is putting decades of progress in jeopardy. A few articles on the topic analyzing the bad news for women – but the last with a hope that men will decide to step up and create a more equitable balance of care work in the future.

The UNFPA was so concerned that they produced a Technical Brief in March 2020 COVID-19: A Gender Lens – Protecting Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, and Promoting Gender Equality. https://www.unfpa.org/resources/covid-19-gender-lens

Hear Us: Truth-telling With No Audience

Articles almost exclusively from working mothers have started to appear – each one shared and “liked” by working mothers (and some fathers) overwhelmed by trying to juggle their work and care for children no longer in school, day care, special education services, or extracurricular activities. Most of the articles were quick reads, which inherently reveals the struggle to find the time and mental bandwidth to produce work. Some of the most telling (and aptly-titled) reads are:

A Modest” Childcare Proposal: A Weekly Parent/Caregiver Stipend

A few weeks ago, I posted the idea of a weekly childcare stipend for home-based care by a parent (or dedicated caregiver) on Facebook and Twitter. Despite the growing pressure to commit to opening schools in August or September, I am even more convinced that a policy like this is both realistic and necessary until children’s education and childcare services can fully open (most likely after a vaccine). Providing a stipend to caregivers will reduce the financial stress on working parents, allow a parent to make the choice to prioritize the time and attention given to the education and welfare of the children in their care, facilitate support for those parents who need more outside help than distance learning typically provides, and stimulate the economy directly and immediately.

APRIL 24, 2020 on Twitter

1/3: A “modest” childcare proposal (to increase employment, protect from school-based COVID-19 transmission, and facilitate opening the economy): How about funding in-home childcare, i.e., pay a weekly stipend to one adult in the home to care for any school age children under 14

2/3 Child care proposal: … including supervising distance learning, and as needed, and an additional adult for babies/toddlers, and/or special needs children requiring more focused supervision? Yes, there are issues to work through, but until we have a vaccine I do not believe

3/3 Child care proposal: … school as we have known it will open again. And, a policy like this can help us reimagine how to include unpaid care work directly in economic calculations in the future.

Care policy to open up the economy could use a kinship care model to pay in-home caregivers of children, elderly, disabled, sick members of a household.

What Pandemic Parenting Policy Needs to Consider

A fully developed pandemic parenting policy would need to consider who is the CARE PROVIDER – parent or dedicated outsider and who is/are the CHILD RECIPIENTS OF CARE. Outside caregivers would need to strictly adhere to pandemic safety protocols and likely be limited to only one family (or possibly two paired families). Considerations should be given to children’s age and needs as well as differences by caregivers such as the examples below. Families with multiple children will have add complexity to the equation. And, the same model could provide stipends for caregivers of the elderly, disabled and sick members of the household who by necessity are socially distancing away from the outside care providers who previously provided services. In addition to stipends, those who are parenting children and responsible for their education need more support. Schools have continued to focus on the needs of teachers who had to make major changes in how they fulfilled their teaching obligations on WHAT the children can be taught under the new distance learning conditions. Yet, little focus has been on recognizing and adequately supporting parents in HOW to teach the children depending on the chid’s age and needs, and their parents’ capacity to implement the curriculum. In these uncertain and changing times, a child-centered approach with adequate flexibility to address the social-emotional needs of childrens and families is paramount. [Not discussed here, but also of importance is children made vulnerable by conflict or abuse in their home and/or community in which they live.

Differences by children’s age and needs (examples to consider, among others):

Image may contain: possible text that says 'Everyone is applauding everyone but our children. These little heroes have stayed indoors more than they've known in their lives. Their whole worlds have literally been turned upside down and they don't know why. All these rules they've never known. being to see family or hugs. Vacations, sports and activities, play dates and school canceled. Adults talking about others becoming unwell, news reporting death after death. Our poor children's minds must racing. Every day their resilient bodies up carry on despite all that's going on. So here's to our heroes: today, tomorrow, forever'
  • Babies
  • Toddlers to 2
  • Pre-School
  • Early Elementary School (K-2)
  • Upper Elementary School (3-5)
  • Middle School (6-8)
  • High School (9-12)
  • Vocational Education
  • Community Colleges
  • Universities
  • Continuing Education
  • Special Education
  • Children with Special Needs
  • Foster Children
  • Homeless Children
  • Abused/Traumatized Children
  • Children With Special Needs
  • Children in Juvenile Detention
  • Children of the Incarcerated
  • Children of Active Duty Military
  • Imigrant Children in Detention or Foster Care

Differences by Parent/Caregiver (examples to consider, among others):

  • Single parent
  • Two parents
  • Guardian(s) – family/kin
  • Foster Parent
  • Divorced Parents (custody issues)
  • Essential Workers
  • Second/Third Shift Workers
  • Disabled (different types)
  • Low Literacy
  • Limited English Language Proficiency

Imagining a Better Future

From the ashes of our crashed economy and the retooling of our education system to accommodate full-scale home-based learning, we should rethink and imagine a better future. We have an opportunity – if we have the will and foresight – to make right in the new that which was wrong with the old system. To use this tragedy to build a forward-looking economy with an integrated parenting policy that recognizes the care work being done to nurture, develop and educate our children beyond the school setting. Sound pandemic parenting policy should lay the groundwork for a more supportive environment going forward for those who parent our children into the future.