A Better Way to Compensate Parents of Babies
The article examines the high costs of infant care and suggests that providing direct funds to parents to care for infants at home may be a more effective policy than subsidizing formal day care centers. It notes that infant care is uniquely expensive due to strict safety and staffing requirements.
Why it matters
It addresses the economic burden of child care on families and the limitations of current public policy solutions.
Offer all of them funds to care for their infants at home.
Illustration by Matteo Giuseppe Pani / The Atlantic September 14, 2026, 7 AM ET Share Save Last year seemed like a pretty big one for breakthroughs in child care. In New York City, Zohran Mamdani’s promise of publicly funded care for young kids helped him win the keys to Gracie Mansion. Officials in Connecticut created an endowment to make care more affordable in that state. And New Mexico became the first state to commit to free child care for all of its residents. But as policy makers have begun hammering out the details of these ambitions, they’ve hit against a stubborn and formidable obstacle: babies.
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