Support for NPR and the following message comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

RWJF is a national philanthropy working toward a future where health is no longer a privilege but a right.

Learn more at RWJF.org.

Hi, I'm Corey Turner.

I'm Anya Kamenetz, and this is NPR's Life Kit.

So here we are. We're four months into the pandemic, and we're working. Most of us,

vast majority of us, have to work. We need somebody safe for our kids to be. We would love for

them to be using their time well, to be learning. To be interacting with other kids, with other responsible adults, obviously.

And at the same time, you know, a lot of our schools are going to be remote only in the fall.

So we're all trying to figure out, what do we do now?

Yeah, it's really tricky.

And there's no one rushing in with a bunch of cash, apparently, to solve all these problems.

What we can offer in this episode is a way to think through your needs and your kids' needs and hopefully come up with your best possible options.

Support for NPR and the following message comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

RWJF is a national philanthropy working toward a future where health is no longer a privilege but a right.

Learn more at RWJF.org.

We have a child care crisis in the U.S. and it precedes this virus.

This is old news for millions of Americans. The virus makes it even worse, and it's important to take stock of what more you're going to need with schools likely closed,

at least intermittently for months to come.

Like, how many hours do you need in your day to get stuff done? Do you think you can handle

kids at home full time or kids at home part time on your own with your partner? Is an adult in your

family going to have to step back from work? Yeah, and is that automatically mom or have you

...