“What’s happening for families in Michigan is happening to families all over the country. The last surgeon general wrote about the emotional burden that caregivers have and the toll that’s taking. Every parent is dealing with that.”
Danielle Atkinson, founding executive director of Mothering Justice, has six children ranging from 6 to 16. She has intimate experience with the struggles parents face, how the pandemic both helped and worsened the struggle, and how the current climate (of the government and employers trying to end hybrid work opportunities) is negatively impacting families.
Mothering Justice, a grassroots policy advocacy organization, is focused on providing mothers in Michigan and across America with the resources they need to fight for policy changes that support them and their family, with an especial focus on empowering mothers of color.
They have multiple agendas — including paid sick leave, reproductive justice and pro care — but in our conversation, we focused on the childcare crisis.
Atkinson says that when the pandemic started and there was strong support for remote work opportunities, she saw how much that benefited parents by giving them flexibility. People could pick their kids up, prepare dinner, run out during the work day to take their kid to a doctor appointment.
“Looking from an outside point of view, these things might seem small and seem like they hurt productivity,” she said. “But it gave parents, predominantly women, the opportunity to have some flexibility in their day. You could do your research a little later, or write your paper a little later, but you can’t get that doctor appointment later. You have to find childcare.”
In Atkinson’s work, women are still the predominant caregivers. Mothering Justice’s work focus on financial stability for mothers. Atkinson reflects that when her sister shifted to remote work during the pandemic, she was able to move from an expensive suburb to a more affordable one. This freed her to save for the future and eventually put her children in more activities.
“We are living in a generation where people who are in the crunch for caregiving responsibilities are the sandwich generation: they’re doing childcare as well as elder care, and that comes with its own load of appointments and jobs,” Atkinson said.
Just the other day, because Atkinson was working from home, she made a crockpot dinner for her family during her lunch hour and in the afternoon spent time with her second grader on a school project due the following day.
“I can do that because I’m home! It’s these small bits of time you’re able to save throughout the day that add up to a culture change and a culture shift that’s going to be really hard to come back from and have a financial and emotional impact on parents” with the ending of remote work that the federal government and many employers are trying to institute.
Many of us know about the difficulty of finding full time affordable, quality childcare. But Atkinson points out that there’s an “after-school period of care” that is also part of the childcare crisis. School schedules are often not compatible with parents’ work schedules. “When you do pick up your kid you have to make dinner, get prescriptions, get them around — there’s so much to do and primary caregivers are just exhausted,” said Atkinson. “Hybrid work gives caregivers a little bit of space to think of their caregiving responsibilities throughout the day and live in places that are more affordable.”
Mothering Justice wants childcare policies that will support every family in Michigan. It wants educators and caregivers paid a competitive wage, it wants families to have paid time off, and it wants systems that hurt women’s economic stability to be dismantled. “Our policy is that no policy is a good one unless it’s a living wage, it’s affordable, and it helps stabilize the childcare industry,” said Atkinson.
“We want people to get involved,” said Atkinson. “We will do meetings with politicians, and you can attend those meetings. When there’s a lot of people in the room asking candidates questions, they feel obligated to be there and answer those questions. We use quite a few mechanisms, including a sister organization that uses an endorsement practice, to get candidates’ attention.”
Mothering Justice also recognizes that many childcare providers, school teachers and school employees are parents.
“We try to work at and talk about that intersection,” Atkinson said. “There are childcare providers that can’t even afford childcare at the institution where they teach!”
It can feel overwhelming to realize how systemic and connected these issues are. “We know that systemic issues have collective solutions,” said Atkinson. “Being a parent is a BIG club! We have a lot of people dealing with the same things and there’s going to be a tipping point.”
When asked if, or when, she thought the childcare crisis would be solved — or at least better, Atkinson said: “It’s not today, it’s not tomorrow — unfortunately the childcare fix is going to come when my own kids are out of preschool!” Atkinson said. “But there is hope on the other side for parents, and that is true for all of these issues.”
Atkinson acknowledges that we are currently in an era where parents’ and providers’ voices have to be louder and they have to work harder. “But I do believe we will have a family-friendly society.”
In the meantime, what can families do when they are trying to find childcare?
Atkinson recommends to source from your own network first. Ask your friends and your family. Some of the criteria that ranks childcare systems are well-intentioned rating systems, but what’s best for one child is not always going to be what’s best for another. Friends and family might have recommendations. Atkinson recommended checking out a variety of options: “The top-rated preschool isn’t the only place!” She noted that some families who might not fall into the criteria to qualify for Great Start (Michigan’s preK program) shouldn’t assume there’s not a space for them just because they don’t qualify: “They might have more spots; give them a call,” said Atkinson.
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Get involved
If you’re interested in getting involved in some capacity, what might be your next step?
Atkinson strongly urged parents to find a “political home: an organization where their mission and agenda really resonates with the needs that you and your family have.”
Ideally, you can find community here, as well as action alerts and things to do. Organizations can also give analyses around political candidates and policies much better than social media.
“For Mothering Justice, when candidates were running last year, we were asking specifics around paid leave. Any politician can give you a talking point, but we were asking hard questions about their platform and how they’re going to address the crisis. Get into the nuance. Help build political power to hold elected officials accountable,” Atkinson said.
If you want to get involved with Mothering Justice in particular, they have a website, and Atkinson recommends their social media pages to learn about events, fellowships, and ways to register online. They’re on Facebook and Instagram.
