Part of the 'great resignation' is mothers forced to leave their jobs
It&#x27;s what happened with my family. In 2019, we fostered my gf&#x27;s sisters&#x27; kids in addition to our own 2. My gf was forced to stop working because there were no daycare slots available for the toddler, and then when COVID hit, we weren&#x27;t about to send the kids to any of the daycares we could afford because of how crowded they all were.<p>Now it&#x27;s a year and a half after the first big panic, half of the daycares are shut down, and the rest of them are overcrowded. Those who were left without jobs at daycares either took unemployment or were able to find better paying jobs (because literally nothing pays worse than a daycare teacher&#x27;s salary... even in a Dallas suburb the starting pay was $8.35 - $10 an hour at most daycares). Raising prices would force a lot of kids out of daycare, so most daycare owners would rather run understaffed facilities than pay their people a fair wage.<p>The entire childcare system is convoluted and broken from top to bottom, and it&#x27;s usually the mothers who are expected to put their careers on hold when there&#x27;s an issue. In our case, it made sense because I make about 4x what my gf does and she&#x27;s pursuing a degree. For many others, it&#x27;s probably a serious drag on the entire family.