{"id":5835,"date":"2024-07-08T13:59:28","date_gmt":"2024-07-08T13:59:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/08\/a-lack-of-child-care-is-keeping-this-43-year-old-mother-of-four-out-of-the-workforce\/"},"modified":"2024-07-08T13:59:28","modified_gmt":"2024-07-08T13:59:28","slug":"a-lack-of-child-care-is-keeping-this-43-year-old-mother-of-four-out-of-the-workforce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/08\/a-lack-of-child-care-is-keeping-this-43-year-old-mother-of-four-out-of-the-workforce\/","title":{"rendered":"A lack of child care is keeping this 43-year-old mother of four out of the workforce"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is part of NBC News\u2019 Checkbook Chronicles, a series of profiles highlighting the financial realities of everyday Americans.<\/em><\/p>\n

Stefanie Longenecker would love to take advantage of rising wages, a strong job market and the master\u2019s degree she\u2019s still paying off. But she has been sidelined from the workforce by a child care system that has grown inaccessible for many families.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Longenecker, 43, left her job as a hospital pathologist during the pandemic to care for her young children amid repeated day care and school closings. Last fall, while she was shopping around for child care for three of her four children in hope of returning to work, one provider quoted her $4,300 a month and couldn\u2019t say when a spot would open up. Another center that would have cost $3,500 a month already had 70 infants on its waitlist.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be great for my family if I could go back to work,\u201d Longenecker said, but so far, \u201cthat\u2019s just not in the cards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Primary source of income:<\/strong> $80,000 to $90,000 a year from her husband\u2019s work as a mechanic, depending on overtime. The couple\u2019s income has been more than halved since 2020, when Longenecker left her job, where she made more than $110,000 annually working with surgical specimens in a hospital lab.<\/p>\n

Living situation:<\/strong> Longenecker and her husband own a home that they\u2019re still paying the mortgage on in\u00a0Palmyra, Pennsylvania, a small community outside Harrisburg, which they share with their children, ages 11 months, <\/strong>2 years, 4 years and 10 years. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Stefanie Longenecker.<\/span>Courtesy Stefanie Longenecker<\/span><\/p>\n

The couple would like to move into a bigger house. The value of their current one has swelled since the start of the pandemic, but that\u2019s also true of those they\u2019d consider moving into.<\/p>\n

As with many households, the combination of high home prices and interest rates has left the family feeling locked in place. Meanwhile, upgrading their current home feels out of reach. Longenecker wants to install air conditioning and replace the windows but doesn\u2019t expect to be able to afford that any time soon.<\/p>\n

Economic outlook: <\/strong>\u201cI definitely feel like the economy as a whole is for the better,\u201d Longenecker said, adding that she\u2019s hopeful even though her family\u2019s finances remain tight. \u201cIt does seem like things are improving.\u201d<\/p>\n

If she could just secure affordable child care, she said, she\u2019s confident she would find a job \u201cin a heartbeat\u201d given the strong labor market, adding that demand for her husband\u2019s skills is strong. Pennsylvania\u2019s unemployment rate has held steady at 3.4% all year, lower than the current national 4% level.<\/p>\n

Budget pain points: <\/strong>While Longenecker\u2019s husband\u2019s pay has increased over the past few years, so have the family\u2019s health care and other costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our experience, when he makes more money, things cost more. Gas is more expensive; groceries are so much more expensive,\u201d she said. \u201cIt seems like on paper we\u2019re going to get ahead, and then the car doesn\u2019t pass inspection or gas goes up again.\u201d (Prices at the pump in Longenecker\u2019s Lebanon County are just a few cents lower than the statewide average a year ago; nationwide, groceries were more than 2% higher in May than the year before.)<\/p>\n

\n

It seems like on paper we\u2019re going to get ahead, and then the car doesn\u2019t pass inspection or gas goes up again.<\/p>\n

Stefanie Longenecker, 43, Palmyra, Pa.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The family has pulled back on short- and long-term spending alike. Vacations are on hold for now. Her husband traded in his vehicle for a heavily used truck costing just $1,000, and he sold a cherished Harley-Davidson motorcycle that had belonged to his father.<\/p>\n

In the short term, Longenecker said, her biggest financial worry is what would happen if her husband were to lose his job. They have only a small emergency fund and would most likely need help from relatives to pay their bills if that happened. Longer-term, she worries about the implications of not being able to contribute to her retirement savings.<\/p>\n

Life as a full-time caregiver: <\/strong>Longenecker hadn\u2019t planned to leave her job, but running out of paid time off to navigate Covid-related day care closures helped force her hand. \u201cIt was a huge decision,\u201d she said. \u201cWe had to revamp our whole financial picture for right now and for the future to make that happen,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Despite the financial and professional sacrifices, she\u2019s grateful for the time she gets to spend with her children. \u201cWe haven\u2019t lost our house. We\u2019re not in debt,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m incredibly lucky to be able to spend this time with my kids, even recognizing the shortcomings.\u201d<\/p>\n

The child care crunch has put a growing squeeze on families since the pandemic, when more than 100,000 workers left the industry and more than 16,000 child care centers permanently closed.<\/p>\n

Since then, child care costs have risen more than 30%, and households with child care expenses have been spending at a slower pace and dipping into savings at a faster rate than the general population, according to a Bank of America analysis of its customers\u2019 spending.<\/p>\n

The strain has disproportionately affected women, with a Stanford University survey finding in 2022 that 39% of women caregivers had left the workforce or reduced their work hours since the pandemic began.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead to returning to work: <\/strong>While Longenecker remains eager to pick back up with her professional career, she wonders whether it will be harder the longer she has to wait.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a hugely hands-on job,\u201d she said of her pathology work. \u201cI can read all the research and understand the technical things, but not having my hands in it, doing it every day, it is definitely a concern that I have.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a \u2018use it or lose it\u2019 skill, and every day I\u2019m losing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This post appeared first on NBC NEWS<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is part of NBC News\u2019 Checkbook Chronicles, a series of profiles highlighting the financial realities of everyday Americans. Stefanie Longenecker would love to take advantage of rising wages, a strong job market and the master\u2019s degree she\u2019s still paying off. But she has been sidelined from the workforce by a child care system that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5836,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}