There’s no getting around day care for pre-kindergarten kids. My son usually plays all afternoon with a few other boys and girls in the neighborhood. I give him a walkie-talkie for simple communication.
There’s no excuse for how our society deals with childcare. It’s too expensive for most, yet the caretakers are extremely low paid. We need to at least consider something like the European approach.
Right now, if we can’t find service, we can’t work a well paying job, so we fall into poverty and need to get welfare. How is that better than the alternative?