Lemonada.

The balancing act of figuring out child care with everything else can feel so fragile.

Whatever system we're able to piece together can all fall apart at any moment.

And when the household bills start mounting, it can feel like a total crisis. You're

often left making sacrifices and still feeling like you're not doing enough. I realized that it was

going to cost $27,000 to have two kids under the age of three in care. So my husband and I made

the decision for me to leave the workforce.

If you don't have child care, then you not have to stay home. If you have to stay home,

then you can't work. If you can't work, you have no income. Was it doable? Yes. Was it hard?

Yes. You're doing everything you can. So why can our child care system work just as hard too?

I'm Gloria Rivera, and this is no one is coming to save us.

This season, we're talking about the child care system that we demand to have.

You heard that right.

We don't just want, but we demand a child care system that is guaranteed, high quality, accessible, and truly supportive for families.

When we say universal public child care,

we mean free birth to five, full day, nearby, easy to apply.

To chart a path forward, we're talking to the experts and everyday people rolling up their sleeves to demand better child care in America.

It's clear that the market is not going to do that, and we're going to need a large government role if we're going to provide high quality child care to every child.

And guess what? It's not rocket science. We know how to do this. Real people are already hard at work making it happen. No one is coming to save us. Season 5 from Lemonada Media, available May 1st, wherever you get your podcasts.