Government Policy Should Enable Mothers to Care for Their Young Children at Home

Last September marked the end of day care funding provided as part of the COVID-19 relief package. There has been a 30% decline in day care employment since the pandemic, and the child care industry has continued to trend down since 2022, according to the Office of Human Services Policy. This shift away from the use of institutional care in America has allowed us to question and evaluate our approach to raising our children and its potential contribution to the mental health crisis. The pandemic gave many families a window into the benefits of being home with their young children, causing many parents to question whether day care is the right choice. Why are we financially incentivizing mothers to return to work extraordinarily early after the birth of their children, rather than encouraging them to care for their emotionally and neurologically fragile infants? 

Attachment security, established in a child's first three years through sensitive, empathic connections, is foundational to mental health. Children are born neurologically and emotionally fragile, relying on the moment-to-moment soothing of their primary attachment figures, usually their mothers. Reducing mothers to a technical role, by equating them with day care workers, is not only false but harmful. Directing government resources towards empowering parents to stay home, supported by family stipends and paid leave through tax credits and social security benefits, is a more effective approach. This facilitates kinship bonds and extended family care, allowing parents to stay home part-time and compensating family members for child care.

For years, societal messaging has emphasized that women contribute more to society in the workforce than at home with their children. In my view, this messaging has contributed to the mental health crisis among U.S. children.

There is a need to move the focus away from institutional daycare and reorient the government toward supporting families' choices to care for their own children and incentivizing mothers to prioritize their children's needs over material ones. Continuing to allocate funds to institutional child care centers, which research suggests elevates children's cortisol levels and leads to anxiety, aggression, and behavioral issues, is an ineffective approach. Instead, government resources should be directed toward empowering parents to choose to stay home and care for their children, as evidenced by 56% of mothers in the United States expressing a desire for this choice. Data from the U.S. Census shows that 66.6% of women who gave birth in the previous 12 months were back at work in 2022, a statistic that has risen by 5% since 2010. 

For years, societal messaging has emphasized that women contribute more to society in the workforce than at home with their children. In my view, this messaging has contributed to the mental health crisis among U.S. children. Today, 1 in 5 children experience a mental disorder, with a staggering 400% increase in the use of psychotropic drugs in children since 2012.

The emotional and physical work of caring for neurologically and emotionally vulnerable children goes beyond mere infrastructure. Mothers are not interchangeable, and their role is neither technical nor mechanistic. The reduction in the use of day care in America should be a sign that we have been on the wrong path in terms of how we care for our children. Rethinking child care funding is essential to prioritizing the well-being of our children and empowering mothers to make choices aligned with their family values. Every mother has the right to care for her children, and every child has the right to be nurtured by his or her own family. Rather than disincentivizing mothers to stay home, let's reshape child care funding to incentivize and support that choice.

Erica Komisar, LCSW is a psychoanalyst, parent guidance expert, and author of Being There: Why Prioritizing Motherhood in the First Three Years Matters, and Chicken Little the Sky Isn’t Falling: Raising Resilient Adolescents in the New Age of Anxiety.

Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or views of the Institute for Family Studies.