Community
Many parents have had to sacrifice a memorable Christmas experience for their kids and are turning to Globe Santa for help.
The ongoing child care crisis in Massachusetts has cost parents their jobs, eaten up families’ paychecks, and forced some to leave the job market and jeopardize their family’s financial health. As a result, many parents have sacrificed a memorable Christmas experience for their kids. And they’re turning to Globe Santa for assistance.
“It has been a tough feeling, like I have failed as a mother while trying to be okay and provide for [my daughter],” one South Shore mom wrote in a letter to Globe Santa. “I would be so grateful to Globe Santa for their help making my baby girl smile during this holiday season.”
Finding accessible, affordable child care is a challenge in a state like Massachusetts, which has some of the highest costs in the country. Child care centers in the state charged, on average, $19,961 per toddler each year, according to a 2023 Annie E. Casey Foundation study. The typical family opting for at-home child care would have to fork over $13,344.
Regardless of whether a parent chooses to send their child to a center or find someone to care for them in their own home, a good chunk of their paycheck is likely going toward it. Married couples in Massachusetts devote roughly 9 to 13 percent of their income to childcare. The stats are more dire for single mothers: a third of the typical Massachusetts mother’s paycheck is spent on family-based care, and at least half of it for moms seeking center-based care.
Elected officials have taken steps to alleviate the statewide childcare burden. In July, Gov. Maura Healey signed the FY2025 budget bill that would pump $1.5 billion into the state’s childcare sector. New measures raise the income threshold for financial assistance and codify grants for child care providers.
Despite legislative efforts to reel in skyrocketing child care costs, the help isn’t coming quickly enough for some families. After splitting up with her daughter’s father, the South Shore mom recently moved to Massachusetts. Since becoming a single mother, she hasn’t been able to find a well-paying job that would cover her daughter’s child care expenses.
Her daughter is “only two years old, but I can see the toll this has taken on her,” the mother writes.
For another mom of three, the exorbitant costs of child care were only the tipping point of an already challenging situation. She wrote in a Globe Santa letter that multiple health complications resulted in numerous surgeries. She hasn’t found a school that can accept her son, who has level 3 autism, meaning that he relies on a caretaker and requires special education. She has already used up her sick time, vacation time, and family leave, too.
“Due to all of this, I have had no choice but to take a leave of absence with my employer with no end in sight,” the mom wrote. Thus, “any help would be greatly appreciated!”.
For some Globe Santa writers, the high price child care has cost them their jobs. One North Shore mom and her one-year-old daughter are staying with her own mother as she awaits unemployment benefits.
“I haven’t been able to get a job because I can’t afford childcare,” the mom writes. “The reason I was fired from my dental assisting job was due to childcare as well.”
If Globe Santa helps her daughter, the mom said, she knows her tot “will be guaranteed to open gifts from Santa this Christmas.”
Despite the challenges families have faced seeking affordable child care, some are trying to make the best of it. And the pressure is on. One new mom wrote that it is especially important that she celebrate Christmas this year, since it will be her and the infant’s first holiday season as a new family.
Since having her 10-month-old son, the mom wrote that she hasn’t been able to return to work. Unlike many families, she doesn’t “have a ‘village’ or any help with childcare.”
“Since not working I’ve experienced [a] significant decrease in income, which has made it difficult to cover basic expenses such as rent, groceries, gas, [and] utilities,” the Greater Boston mom wrote.
Thus, the mom is reaching out to anyone to help in celebrating “a very special Christmas.”
“My son means the world to me and I aspire to make this holiday season extra memorable for him, even with the little that we have,” she wrote. “As his parent, it is incredibly important to me to create a memorable Christmas for my child.”
For 69 years Globe Santa, a program of the Boston Globe Foundation, has provided gifts to children in need at holiday time. Please consider giving by phone, mail, or online at globesanta.org.
Boston.com Today
Sign up to receive the latest headlines in your inbox each morning.