For many parents, ensuring one household during the early years of childhood can be a lifesaver. If careers align with this stability, parents can split the regime, as one goes to work while the other stays home to take care of  the kids. As the pandemic has continued, parents have had to stay home which brings up the idea of paying our stay-at-home parents. 

Job loss has been a side effect of this pandemic since it started; however, it has been even more severe on women. Out of the 140,000 jobs lost in December, all of them were women. This change in employment forces many families to go back to the nuclear idea of a mother staying home while the other parent works. While this ideal is antiquated and unnecessary, it causes the question why stay at home parents aren’t being paid?

For many the debate between daycare and stay at home is essentially a lose-lose situation. Daycare can cost several thousand dollars per year, plus the emotional deficit of leaving your child so soon after birth. Many daycares are even closing now due to lack of funds or COVID restrictions. 

However, staying at home costs an entire income, and even though you can save money through less work related expenses and additionally getting a better tax return if the family falls into a lower tax bracket, it still is an extreme cost. The family can lose thousands in retirement savings and social security because they aren’t paying into it anymore. This could be negated by simply paying stay at home parents. 

It isn’t as if they are at home doing nothing. They act as a housekeeper, cook, nanny and even teacher in this era of online learning. 

The pandemic is not only shutting the doors of daycares for younger ones but elementary to high schools are not in session full time either. Having a parent dedicated to home and keeping track of school would be beneficial to so many students allowing them to learn better. 

People are fine with insulting stay-at-home parents saying that they get to relax and do nothing, but reap the rewards of having a clean home, finished laundry and a hot meal to arrive back to. 

For many years Republicans have advocated for “the traditional family structure” which bounds mothers to the home. If parents were able to afford to keep a parent home by not losing a whole income, they’d be much more likely to. It would allow people of all classes to afford this, not solely the wealthy. This should be something that is a bipartisan issue. 

This benefits an entire family. The parent who is home would be able to support their child and home without stressing about losing income and job opportunities because stay-at-home would be considered a job- which it is. The parent working would not worry about leaving their child at daycare, knowing that the other parent is tending to their child. The child benefits with a parent home.