Derry, NH
Due to my medical conditions I was told I could never have children. I prepared my life to be without children. However, I can say that my life began when my son Atlas was born. He is almost a year old now and he lights up my life. A few months after he was born my husband and I had a serious discussion about my going back to work. At the time, I worked at a barber shop cutting hair and the money wasn’t exactly dependable. Neither was the scheduling.
We started to look into the cost of Childcare and found the only places we could afford were in home care centers that are not subject to the same standards as one of the accredited centers that we felt more comfortable with him attending. Even then, we would be struggling with paying our bills. I opted to stay home and be with our son but also we made the decision that we could not afford to ever have another child. This decision broke my heart but we felt blessed with just Atlas.
I now work for a tattoo studio that allows me to bring Atlas to work with me for a couple days a week working no more than 12 hours total. We couldn’t afford for me to completely not work. But now, my small paycheck goes specifically to pay for our groceries. A single income family just doesn’t exist anymore. We should have policy changes to reflect that. The cost of childcare affected where I was able to work and I know there are many families affected by this. I am lucky to have a part time job which allows me to bring my son to work.
There are ways to make childcare work for families and NH needs to explore them.