This message comes from Bayer. Science is a rigorous process that requires questions, testing, transparency, and results that can be proven. This approach is integral to every breakthrough Bayer brings forward. Innovations that save lives and feed the world. Science delivers.com.

Okay, y'all, are you a parent or have you talked to a parent recently? Well, newsflash, the parents

are not okay. And I mean this in a couple of ways. Yes, there's the financial strain of raising a

child right now, but I'm also talking about this underlying anxiety that seeps into every conversation I have with

the parent. The question of, am I a good parent? For the next few weeks, we're going to look at

the culture of parenting in America today, from the political propaganda that preys on new

parents to the challenges of raising a child equipped to survive

in our rapidly changing world.

We're showing you how not to fall for the parent trap.

New York City mayor-elect Zora Mamdani has been all over the headlines this past year. I want to zoom in on one aspect

of his campaign that earned him heaps of support, but also more than a few critical side eyes.

The city's inability to provide child care means that businesses often have to provide stipends

for that child care. I'm talking about universal child care.

Right now, the absence of universal child care means that a family will pay around $22,500 a year,

which is more money than many of them would spend if they sent that same kid to college 18 years

later.

The idea of having child care available for children as young as six

weeks had some people feeling like Mom Donnie was really shaking the table. But actually, there was a time

when the entire country had universal child care. Let's go back to the 1940s to World War II.

The U.S. needed as many women as possible to join the workforce.

That's Dr. Jessica Colarco, professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

What they ultimately decided to do after some kicking and screaming from Congress

...