Military Childcare Challenges- How Momni Can Help

Our community was recently affected by the tragic loss of a local police officer. He was shot while trying to help apprehend a fugitive. The young officer left behind his wife and one year old son. He attended the same high school as my daughter.

His wife was raised in the small city where I live. The community came out in force in support of his family and colleagues, but I still wonder if we too often take for granted those who serve and protect us. Our policemen, firemen, emergency first respondents as well as those who serve in our armed forces like the US Military come to mind. The Stats Currently, there are 1.4 million men and women in active duty military service around the world.

Of those, 14.4 percent are women. Active duty military have more family members, 1.9 million, than there are service members! Approximately 56 percent are married and 44 percent have children. Five percent are single parents.

The largest age group of children is between birth and 5 years old, about 527,670. Families are a big deal in the military! Military Daycare Given these numbers, it’s obvious why childcare is a challenging issue for military families . I’ve recently had the opportunity to talk with several military moms from varied backgrounds.

I’ve learned from them that the Department of Defense (DoD) offers a daycare on each base. The cost is usually fairly reasonable, based on the service members rank in the military. The challenge is that base day cares are often full. One mom said she was told to get on the day care waiting list immediately after arriving at a new post.

Similarly, another mom said that the paperwork and hoops that have to be jumped through to use the daycare are enough to discourage families from using base daycare. A third mother said her children did not like attending the base daycare. They described it as “clinical” and “military-like”. Unfortunately, the children are separated by age, which also means separation from siblings.

In a recent study commissioned by the DoD, Rand Corporation found that high-quality child care is a readiness and retention issue. They stated, “If parents are forced to make do with inadequate child-care arrangements or cannot find child care, they may be distracted from duty or in some instances may even fail to report for duty in order to care for their children.” It breaks our hearts to hear how those who are fighting to protect our country are fighting to find decent child care as well.

They also found that, “users of DoD CDC child care — the most sought after and most heavily subsidized type of non-parental care — were more likely to report a high probability of leaving the military because of child-care issues.” Problems finding child care were particularly common among single-parent and dual-military families with preschool-aged children. How Can Momni Help? Momni to the rescue! Military families are known for taking care of each other.

They watch over each other in times of need, particularly during deployment. At Momni, we believe that a solution to the childcare crisis is moms helping moms. We envision a circle of Momni’s at each base throughout the world. As military families arrive, they won’t have to get on a waiting list for the daycare.

Rather, they will already have a trusted circle of caregivers in place the moment they arrive. We call it caresharing, the future of childcare!