Our Texas member Megan joined Senator Patty Murray, Rep. Bobby Scott, and other Democratic leaders of Congress and advocates in D.C. at the re-introduction of the Child Care for Working Families Act, comprehensive legislation which will make high-quality child care affordable for families and address child care shortages throughout the nation! As a mom of two, Megan shared her story of the difficult choice to leave the workforce to care for her family due to the rising cost of child care. 

Here is her story: 

My name is Megan Spencer. I’m a mom of two bright, active, amazing boys, ages 3 and 4. We live in Houston, Texas and I’m a very proud member of MomsRising. Thank you for the chance to share my story here today, Senator Minority Leader Schumer, Senator Murray, Democratic Whip Clark, and Ranking Member Scott – and thank you all so much for the work you’re doing to solve our country’s child care crisis.

I entered the workforce when I was 16 years old and worked continuously until I had my children. I progressed quickly in the field of human resources. I loved my career, and I love being a mom. I took a year off when I had my first child and returned to work briefly, but it was challenging for my family because of the exorbitant cost of child care.Then when our second son was born, I had to leave the workforce entirely because it no longer made economic sense for me to continue. Even though I was making good money, we couldn’t justify me continuing in my job because child care cost more than my take-home pay.

It was really painful to have to choose between advancing in my career or paying more – much more – than we could afford for child care for our two young sons. So we made a difficult choice, and today I am a stay-at-home mom.

My family can cover the basics on my husband’s salary, but money is a lot tighter without my income. It’s stressful. We have to be careful about every dollar we spend. We’re super careful about the groceries we buy. We can’t pay for multiple extracurriculars at the same time, so our kids have to choose between playing soccer or doing gymnastics. We’re lucky we have two boys, so we can pass down clothes. But it feels like we live on a tightrope, especially with the cost of food and housing soaring and child care out of reach.

I hope to, and plan to, reenter the workforce when my kids are both in elementary school. But by then I’ll be several years behind in a field that is constantly evolving. It’s frustrating that I haven't been able to keep up because of our country’s child care crisis. And I know it could have implications for my earnings for years, even decades, to come.

It seems insane that we’re living in one of the richest countries in the world, and we don’t have affordable child care or guaranteed paid family and medical leave.And it’s painful that congressional Republicans just passed trillions of dollars in tax breaks for the richest people in our country while doing nothing to make child care affordable for families like mine.

The issues we are facing have a domino effect on kids, families, and our society. Everything starts in childhood. We need better maternal health care, including in the fourth trimester – the months after we give birth. I struggled after giving birth. I was lucky that I had a support system, but not all moms have that. If you start out your caregiver journey overwhelmed physically, financially, and mentally, the children pick up on it.

We need to support caregivers, moms, dads, and young kids – and that’s what the Child Care for Working Families Act does. Families like mine need the 7% cap on child care costs for working families this legislation would create. We need the higher wages it would provide for our incredible child care workers, so they can stay in the field and do the essential work of caring for our youngest kids. We need the grants that would help child care providers stabilize their programs and keep their doors open. And we need the universal pre-school this bill would support.

This legislation offers a comprehensive solution to our child care crisis that would help all families. Our country would be much better off if the Child Care for Working Families Act becomes law. On behalf of moms like me in Houston and across the country, thank you for working to strengthen families, communities, businesses and our economy by passing this bill to help solve our country’s child care crisis.

Thank you.

Do you have a child care story? We want to hear from you! Share your experience with us here.