Parents share COVID-19 childcare solutions
AS the work-from-home order expired on May 31 and some workplaces rushed to have operations return to normal as soon as possible, parents were left scrambling to find alternative childcare options so that they could return to work. With all educational institutions, including nurseries and day care centres, still closed, many less-than-ideal childcare options became a necessary evil overnight.
Although several staff members who were working from home were allowed to continue to do so, others were left to either find a way or stay home without pay.
Some parents shared the hasty arrangements they managed to put in place, and how they feel about them.
Johnelle, 35, team lead:
We had to hire a sitter to stay with my two children. She is great with them and all, but it’s really cutting into our finances big time, because we are still paying school fees for the older one, and we both took salary cuts. I also feel filthy coming home every day, possibly with the virus. I wish I didn’t have to go.
Timoya, 29, media practitioner:
What a group of us moms from my son’s day care did was form a child-sharing group. It’s four of us so one person keeps all four kids each day from Monday to Thursday, then on Friday everybody keeps their own. That way we all get at least three solid workdays in. It’s a bit risky still, but it’s better than nothing.
Annie, 31, public relations officer:
My boss said I had to come in effective June 1, because my stats had dropped slightly since I started working from home in March, which they unfairly interpreted as me being ‘too distracted’ at home. Other team members’ stats had dropped too, because, hello, we are experiencing a global crisis. It’s not business as usual! I had to ask my mother, who is hypertensive, to come stay in the COVID-infested Corporate Area to keep the boys so I can go into the office to do the same amount of work I was doing at home.
Wayne, 36, technician:
I took a part-time job to supplement my salary, and my girlfriend is on unpaid leave at home with our son. Things are tight, and I’m always very tired, but it works out well for the home and for our son’s education.
Tiana, 25, accountant:
I’m a single mom and I don’t have any relatives living close to me, but we are doing some stock counting for a company and I have to physically go in to do that, so I had to leave my one-year-old baby with my cousin two parishes away. It’s horrible. I can’t see my daughter often because travelling is expensive. My cousin says she cries all the time. My breasts are overflowing with milk, I can’t sleep at night, and I am worried sick that something will happen to her.
Terrence, 37, sales agent:
I asked my mom to move in with us for the time being. It is kind of cramped with her here, and my dad is lonely back home without her, but it works for now.
Natasha, 27, customer care representative:
I quit my marketing job and took a job as a remote call centre agent. My daughter is seven so she goes to online school or watches TV in another room, and the pay is really not much less than what I was making before, when you consider that I’m not spending on transportation, restaurant food, or childcare.
