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Working parents face difficult choices as school year approaches

Many students have remote learning option

DETROIT – How do you handle a day-to-day job while having to help teach your children who are remote learning at home? That’s the question many parents are asking.

Parents are really feeling the strain while juggling work and child care. Some have had to choose between staying in the work force or teaching their children.

READ: Michigan Legislature gives schools flexibility in pandemic

Blessing Adesiyan is a chemical engineer, a working mother of three, juggling the demands of a baby, a toddler and a pre-teenage daughter.

“I am breastfeeding, I am cooking and cleaning and I’m changing two diapers at the same time sometimes. You know, trying to get laundry done and at the same time I’m trying to get on a conference call I am in charge of a conference call,” Adesiyan said.

A new study finds that in order to take care of their children during the pandemic, about 65 percent of working parents said they start late or end their work day early.

View list: Michigan school district return plans for 2020-21

With many parents home with their children, it may have lasting and long term effects on their careers. According to a recent online study, about 75 percent of parents surveyed said they are planning to make major changes to their professional lives. The changes are to accommodate their children who are learning remotely in the fall.

Experts said it’s going to require the government and employers working together to try to minimize the lasting effects on working parents as they continue to juggle work and parenting at home.

READ: More return to school coverage


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