It was mid-morning when Nadine Jones got the daycare call every working mother dreads-her son spiked a fever and needed to be picked up. Jones, a senior associate at a big D.C. law firm, newly divorced with full custody of her 14-month-old son, knew what that call meant: her day was about to unravel. At the daycare, another single mother pulled Jones aside. "Don't you have to work?" she asked. Yes, Jones replied.
We are a white, well-off (not extremely wealthy, but doing fine) family living in a mid- to lower-income neighborhood in a major coastal city. Our first grader goes to a Title I public school and a well-known, national non-profit (we'll call it "the ABC program") runs the school care. Our youngest will start kindergarten this fall. I grew up in a wealthy suburb with very minimal diversity of any kind, and I really appreciate that my children are growing up in a more diverse environment.