Over the weekend, my family hosted a concert in our house. It featured an old friend of mine, a kind-of-a-big-deal classical guitarist who lived down the hall from me during our freshman year of college. He now travels the world, has performed for the Queen of England (no big deal), and was passing through Philadelphia.
I never thought about our childcare crisis being a central theme here, I think you’re right! I think there’s another huge divide between parents: those that have family nearby that are ready and willing to help and those that don’t. I find those that don’t seem rely more on finding a tight knit group of friends with similarly-aged kids to function as that family-bench for extra childcare, but it’s still really hard with little kids. For what it’s worth, the childfree/parent divide got much easier for me once my kids were no longer toddlers. Swapping childcare is much easier, more people are able to manage them for longer, there are more activities they can attend where they are present, but not the focus. My childfree friends that came to the park when I had an infant and a toddler, I now try to go out of my way to see them without kids, to even out that imbalance.
I never thought about our childcare crisis being a central theme here, I think you’re right! I think there’s another huge divide between parents: those that have family nearby that are ready and willing to help and those that don’t. I find those that don’t seem rely more on finding a tight knit group of friends with similarly-aged kids to function as that family-bench for extra childcare, but it’s still really hard with little kids. For what it’s worth, the childfree/parent divide got much easier for me once my kids were no longer toddlers. Swapping childcare is much easier, more people are able to manage them for longer, there are more activities they can attend where they are present, but not the focus. My childfree friends that came to the park when I had an infant and a toddler, I now try to go out of my way to see them without kids, to even out that imbalance.