Trump officials have drafted a plan to pay stay-at-home parents for about $9,000 per child. This isn't about helping married parents—it's about punishing single mothers. 

The proposed benefit, a top policy for Vice President JD Vance, would take funds earmarked for child care for low-income parents and change the eligibility requirement to include married families with a parent who does not work. The $12 billion Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) was created in the 1990s to support low-income parents so they could work or get an education. According to Department of Health and Human Services data, about 80% of the 870,000 families who currently receive child care subsidies have single working parents, most of whom are mothers. Meanwhile, about 40 percent of American children are born to unmarried parents.    

The money is currently distributed to states via a block grant, and it typically goes directly to child care providers. The proposal would NOT increase the amount of funding, but it would create "the option for a new category of care, parent-based child care, that will allow one married parent to receive CCDF assistance to care for their own child, while a spouse works at least 35 hours per week." Critics—including conservative groups featured on FOX News have warned that using existing funds for stay-at-home parents without new money could stretch resources thin, diverting support away from low-income working families and daycare providers.

This is only the latest battle in the war that Trump administration is waging on America's children. The administration is already trying to gut Head Start, cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) even as grocery prices continue to rise, and scale back federal health care. 

I can only conclude that the administration's plans are either to pit stay-at-home parents against working ones, or to punish single parents—like JD Vance's own mother. And it is not what American mothers want. According to a 2025 analysis from the Institute for Family Stuidies, a conservative policy and research organization, the majority of married mothers with children under five, regardless of marital status, prefer to work rather than stay at home full time. Furthermore, the study notes a major rise in full-time employment among married mothers, largely driven by economic pressures.

Forcing a policy that stirps child care away from working parents completely ignores the economic realities of young famiolies. I pray this rule will never goes into effect. If it does, it could actively harm all working parents who rely on daycare.