“My spouse and I have been discussing our plans to have children. While I am excited and even overjoyed at the idea of growing our family in the near future, I am also terrified. I know that parents are experiencing additional difficulties during the pandemic without access to child care. I am already overwhelmed by grad school and can’t imagine how I could make progress on my dissertation with a child at home. Even if I did reliably have access to child care, it is extremely expensive. Without knowing how long the pandemic will last and where I might be headed after graduate school, it’s impossible to plan for the future. I’m also anxious thinking about what the world might look like for my future children. But I’m also worried that there will always be reasons to put off having kids, and I don’t want to wait too long.”
