Childcare in Capitol: As women run for office, some are bringing their kids

Tallahassee: When Florida state Rep. Fiona McFarland’s infant daughter, Grace Melton, crawled for the first time, the mom of four was right next door, hard at work with her legislative policy staff in the state Capitol.

Thanks to the on-site childcare available in the statehouse, McFarland didn’t miss that magical first milestone in her 7-month-old’s young life.

“The sitter I had with her just grabbed me out of my meeting right next door and I came over and got to witness it,” McFarland recalled.

As more women and young people run for public office, they’re bringing more than fresh policy ideas to statehouses — some are bringing their kids.

Like working parents across the country, some lawmakers are scrambling to find childcare that fits their often unpredictable schedules, at a price they can afford. Rushing back and forth from their districts, they juggle meetings with constituents and coordinate their children’s drop-offs, power through late-night floor sessions and step out to pump breast milk between votes, hoping to make it home for their kids’ bedtime.

“Looking back, I’m like, How did I do that?’” Michigan state Sen. Stephanie Chang said, recalling those frenzied years when she was a new legislator and a new mom.

The Democrat used to race across the state with her baby and freezer bags of milk in tow, leaving her daughter with family members so she could make her 9 am committee meetings at the state Capitol in Lansing.

In one of the few industrialised countries that lacks universal paid family leave, Chang says America’s child care crunch is keeping some parents from running for public office because they simply “cannot make it all work,” ultimately leaving young families with fewer advocates to help decide “what we’re doing for the future of our children.”

Some state capitols, which were mostly built before women could vote, still lack enough accessible bathrooms, advocates say, let alone spaces to comfortably change a baby’s diaper or nurse an infant.

“Legislators legislate based on their lived experience,” said Liuba Grechen Shirley, founder of the Vote Mama Foundation, which pushes to break barriers that moms face while running for office. “We have terrible policies that fail women and children across the country because we don’t have enough moms serving at any level of government,” she said.“There has been an increase in reports of looting incidents, amid the desperate humanitarian situation...Over the weekend, armed individuals reportedly looted a truck in Deir al Balah,” the OCHA report said.

As of this year, 33 per cent of state legislators were women, according to the Centre for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. Fewer than 8 per cent of those lawmakers are moms of minor children.