Going the extra mile
Changes all the time
The workforce
Family decisions
These stories come from parents whose jobs have been affected by the need for child care. Some quit their jobs or changed some substantial piece of it to fit child care into their lives, or learned to go without it.
Click on images below to learn about a family's experience on this issue
By the time my oldest son started kindergarten, he had switched day cares eight times – mostly due to day care closures. When my youngest son was born, we had settled on the only licensed center in our county for both of them. Since we live at the northern end of the county and the daycare was at the southern end, I was driving 100 miles a day, Monday through Friday. It was stressful and time-consuming, but we were a two-parent working household, so we were making it work.
Fast forward to the summer before my oldest started kindergarten, and I realized the only option I had was to continue sending my youngest to the licensed center and send my oldest to before and after-school care.
However, that wouldn't solve everything. What about school breaks and sick days and possible quarantines? The only viable option was for me to quit my full-time job of almost eight years and become a stay-at-home mom.
While lack of child care in Jasper County has decreased our household income, I'm most bummed that my youngest son isn't getting the same early education experience that my oldest had.
Finding quality child care was one of my main priorities after we had our first child. Having a background in education and being involved in schools, we knew that those first five years in a child’s life were the most important in their brain development. Thankfully, we had a lot of help from close family and found a wonderful in-home day care provider. We knew that our son would be loved and well taken care of while we were at work.
However, it got harder for our family to watch after him and our day care provider was 30 minutes in the opposite direction of our jobs. After much discussion we decided that I would stay home for a while to raise our children.
Fast forward five years and two more children later, I started to look at going back into the workforce. I soon realized that this was going to be nearly impossible. Even with having two children in school full-time, there were no available child care options for our third child. We talked to numerous in-home day care providers that came highly recommended, and they all had waitlists – even for something part time.
After doing some research we found there were no day care facilities in our area. Once we realized that quality child care was not readily available, we decided that I would continue to stay home. We cannot begin to imagine the frustration that other parents who don’t have the option of staying home feel with the lack of quality child care in our area.
I work as a hairstylist about 30 hours a week. My child care search started in 2019 when I was pregnant. By the time he was 3 months old, I was onto my second sitter. We found her by luck, and our only other choice was a day care that was overloaded and didn’t have a safe area for my baby to be set down.
Fast forward to 2021, on maternity leave with my second baby, and my sitter decided to get a full time job due to the cost of living increase. We still have not found proper child care for my 2-year-old and 2-month-old. No one has openings for two kids and babies under one year, or the cost is too high for part time work.
We’ve made the decision to quit my job. After the cost of my business, gas and child care, there’s not much money left over. It’s not worth the time, stress, money or health of my kids to work right now.
I never realized how crucial child care was in my county until I had a child of my own this year.
My little one is 8 months old now, but before I had her, my husband and I had to come up with who was going to watch her whenever I returned to work after my maternity leave. Luckily there was one opening at Perry Childcare – full time in the infant room – so we took it. All home sitters in Tell City were full, or only took on one infant at a time. We spent five months at Perry Childcare, until they went through a shutdown due to shortage of employees a couple of months ago. This in turn, led the room to be shut down for six weeks.
My family was under a lot of stress trying to find a sitter for our little girl in just a short amount of time. My mom had to take off a couple of weeks to watch her, so she was able to use some of her vacation days. I also took off a few days here and there, unpaid. I kept messaging home sitters in town hoping they would be able to take her until day care opened back up. Thankfully, I was able to find someone to take her for us. I found a home sitter that was going to help us out.
Once day care opened back up, my husband and I decided to just keep our daughter at her home sitter, she was going to watch her full time for us. We couldn’t risk the chance of day care running into any more setbacks.
At first when we realized how much day care was going to be each week, my husband and I had to consider our finances. We had to make it work regardless, because at the time there was no other option. Some families are not able to pay the fees for child care; in turn they are just staying home. This county is in desperate need of child care so families are able to go back to work and can depend on care for their children.
We moved here in January of 2019 and had our first child in April. We moved from a suburb of Illinois, where day cares are plentiful – and expensive.
Upon moving here, we made the decision that I would continue to work in downtown Chicago, so we found the closest day care to use for a newborn that was open the earliest since we started at 7 a.m.. It was 25 miles away in Crown Point.
Shortly after having our first son we changed our minds to have me be a stay-at-home-mom. Little did I know, I wouldn't really have a choice of where to send my child from that point forward.
With no immediate family within a 65 mile drive of us, we are completely dependent on child care that is not family.
When the lockdowns of 2020 started, my husband was cut hours at his job and I was made to look for work. I found work that I could do from home as a receptionist, but finding child care was a problem. Luckily, a lady opened an in-home day care in Wheatfield. I had visited another in-home day care in Demotte, but was not happy with what I saw: dusty pictures and clutter not conducive for young children and a small room – a little bigger than a large bathroom – that was the room they would play and nap in. Needless to say, I did not ever send my child there.
Finding child care for children under 3 years old is virtually impossible in the Demotte/Wheatfield and surrounding areas. We had our second child in September of 2020.
The day care I had found in Wheatfield closed its doors in January of 2021 and I was forced to leave my job. A two hour drive each day to child care really puts a damper on the positions that you can take that might be close to your house.
Since then, I haven't returned to work but I do own my own copywriting business as a freelancer. On weeks when I have a heavy client-load, it is very hard to get work done. I've also found another lady who was offering child care in her home in the town of Demotte. But after the second visit, she asked about my television preferences for the children, which makes me wonder if she allows them to watch TV. I don't have to pay someone to have my kids watch TV.
It's frustrating and difficult to find child care in these areas. At first we wanted three or four kids, but now with two in tow, we are reevaluating our decision. The lack of child care options does make it difficult. Even without working a "normal" job, I need time to get work done or just have time to myself and that doesn't happen without child care options.