/Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post
Many raising children on their own are worried what might happen to their kids if mom or dad gets the coronavirus
By Samantha Schmidt and Tara Bahrampour The Washington Post
After clocking out of her shift at a clinic in Northern Virginia, Taniqua James changed out of her scrubs in her car and drove the 45 minutes to pick up her 2-year-old daughter, wondering whether it would be the toddler’s last day at the child-care center — and, maybe, her last day at work.
The toddler’s private day care in Largo, Md., had stayed open even as the number of people testing positive for the novel coronavirus was multiplying. James, a 28-year-old single mother, was still able to continue working full time as an ambulatory technician. But on Monday, Maryland’s governor announced the closure of all nonessential businesses, and James had no idea whether that might include her daughter’s child care.
“Am I going to have to leave work?” James asked. “If I leave work because I don’t have child care, then who is paying our bills?”
“Whether it’s deciding to go or not go to the grocery store, to forgo parenting time in order to prevent exposing other family members to the virus, or to hop on a plane to go see a dying family member, folks all across the country are being faced with very tough choices. The most prevalent issue now facing coparents is whether to honor their parenting plans. Now more than ever I have been calling on my clients to be transparent and honest with their coparent about this unprecedented situation.”
Kaine Fisher
