As the reopening of Broadway, restaurants, and other venues signal the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, parents of young children, particularly those with children under 5, must contend with the real limitations fostered by COVID-19 in their day-to-day lives especially as it pertains to their professional responsibilities. When our son was born last year, the uncertainty of the pandemic prompted my partner and I to keep our son home until last month. I excitedly labeled all his clothes, packed his bedding and sippy cups for this first day of daycare. However, the evening of August 31, I received a phone call from the daycare director to inform us that the daycare experienced two COVID-19 exposures and must delay opening to students until September 10^th. 

The first weeks of class, I grappled with caring for him and addressing my professional responsibilities as the new academic year reeved up. I haggardly made it to September 10^th often working late at night. During his first week of daycare, I regained the hope of normalcy: working uninterrupted felt luxurious. I started to regain some balance after more than a year of working distracted and mostly tired. The photos featured on the daycare app over the week radiated a robust learning environment; and my little one evidently loved his new friends, teachers, and his new vibrant learning place. But by the end of his second week, photos now featured a tired toddler at times crying and evidently sick. Anyone with a young family knows, children naturally get sick as they build their immune system when starting daycare or school. Fast forward, at this point in the semester, he spent more days with me at home than in daycare and has had 3 PCR tests due to his display of COVID-19-like symptoms. All tests were negative, but he had to stay home until his symptoms dissipated. 

Working and teaching from home is not a matter of convenience for me and other faculty parents, but a way to provide the necessary flexibility to care for our children as the pandemic lingers. Concomitantly, the 70% face-to-face course mandate not only places unjustified stress on faculty with young children but also disenfranchises students who contend with the same situation and may only continue their program of study with online course options. We hope the administration will reconsider this mandate and work in collaboration with faculty, students, and staff to generate a college reopening plan sensitive to our anxieties, concerns, and needs.