Half of U.S. Working Parents at Their Breaking Point as COVID-19 Variants Spread
A year and a half ago, many parents were forced to take on the seemingly impossible challenge of working from home with kids during the pandemic. Frontline and essential workers without an option to work from home scrambled to find childcare, and single parents and caregivers felt the impact of school shutdowns two-fold. Now, as cases of the Delta variant rise and schools remain precarious, working parents may have reached their breaking point.
Indeed surveyed more than 1,000 U.S. working parents to learn more about how the pandemic has impacted their families, and subsequently, their careers.¹ More than half of working parents (54%) believe the level of uncertainty surrounding school and childcare over the last 18 months is no longer sustainable for them. In fact, the majority (nearly seven in 10) believe if this continues into 2022, one parent may need to leave the workforce. This statistic, of course, doesn’t even account for the growing number of single-parent households, where quitting isn’t a viable option. Read on for more of what our survey revealed.
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How COVID-19 is still impacting working parents
Working parents were hoping the 2021–22 school year would be easier than the last as the vaccine rollout progressed. 84% of survey respondents reported that the adults in their home have been vaccinated against COVID-19, and 69% of those whose children are old enough to receive the vaccine say they have done so. Instead, the start of the school year was met with a nationwide Delta variant surge.
Here’s how working parents are feeling about the pandemic now:
Parents are extremely concerned about the disease
43% of the parents we surveyed say they are either “terrified” (13%) or “very worried” (30%) that their children will catch the Delta variant of COVID-19. And with many children still not old enough to be vaccinated, working parents of children under the age of 12 were 25% more likely than parents of older children to feel this way.
Working parents have a choice — or do they?
Parents now find themselves facing a difficult decision about whether to keep their kids in school. 65% of those who have children with the option of learning remotely this year have opted to go that route, with 94% of these parents saying they will send their kids back to in-person school only once the vaccine becomes available to all age groups.
Deep divisions over safety policies are adding to the stress these parents are feeling. Working parents who live in states that have banned schools from mandating masks were 29% more likely than those with state mask mandates to say that they are “very worried” about their children catching the virus. These parents were also 78% more likely than those in states with mask mandates to say that they do not feel confident their children will be safe at school this semester.
Of course, not everyone even has a choice — three in 10 working parents say their children’s school is not offering a remote learning option this school year. Respondents whose children attend private schools were 35% more likely than parents of children who attend public schools to say that they are being offered a remote learning option.
Related: Interview Question: “What’s the Most Difficult Decision You’ve Had to Make?”
Parents are worried about the impact of remote learning on their job
While not all parents are equally concerned about the virus — and not all kids are starting the school year remotely — nearly everyone is concerned that fully remote learning will happen again. 76% of working parents predict that their children’s school will shut down or pivot to remote learning entirely at some point this school year due to COVID outbreaks. Another 73% say that even if their child stays healthy, they will likely have to miss a week or more of school at some point during the year due to COVID exposure and quarantine protocols.
Inevitably, this has alarmed working parents about the implications school closures will have on their jobs. 69% of working parents say that helping their kids with remote learning negatively impacts their work performance, with 56% worried that the impact could be severe enough that their job is in jeopardy.
Many parents also agree that childcare is even harder to secure now than it was before the pandemic, with only about half (51%) saying they have someone available who they can trust to help with childcare or remote learning in the event of a quarantine event. The other half would have to either help their kids with school while working (40%) or take time off from work (9%) — and women were 57% more likely than men to say they would have to take time off.
¹ Indeed survey, n=1,002 working full-time in the U.S. who are a parent or legal guardian of at least one child aged 17 or younger who lives with them and attends public or private school in grades K-12.
