Editor's Corner
Why You Should Care
It’s a Sunday night, and I’m editing a story on Virginia’s child-care crisis when the sitter calls. There’s a bug going around, and it has decided to pay her a visit.

My in-box is full, so taking a vacation day on Monday is out of the question. My husband has a morning meeting he can’t miss, but he’ll try to get home early. My son’s uncle, who can sometimes pinch-sit, is in New York.

I call a friend and line up a good chunk of substitute time and cross my fingers that I can repay the favor soon.

Any change in routine is a hassle, and parenting is difficult even when everything runs smoothly. But I count myself lucky, as do other parents who have found some measure of work-life balance. My son’s sitter rarely has been sick. My job allows some flexibility. And, most important, my employer is accommodating.

Can your workers say the same about you?

Marjolijn Bijlefeld, who wrote this month’s feature on day care while watching her own two children, found that many Virginians are struggling, and there’s much more that businesses can do.

My system seems to work — some days better than others. My former boss, who resigned as executive editor to take over investor relations for Media General, made it easy for me to be an editor and a mom. I was already telecommuting, and he said OK to flex time. And Media General, which owns this magazine, has a dependent-care spending account that helps make sitters more affordable.

I live within walking distance of Virginia Tech, which is why I’ve been able to find bright students willing and able to carve out time from class schedules to work. I can only guess that trying to duplicate this setup in a market like Fairfax County’s would be impossible.

Child care is a touchy subject. In the circles I travel, talking about child care can be like talking about politics or religion.

A friend of mine attended a baby shower the other week and, trying to be social, innocently asked one of the guests: "What do you do?"

The woman shot back a look: "I am a mother," she said.

"She made me feel guilty about the way I’m raising my kids," my friend said, "and I don’t even have kids."

Kind of makes you want to shut up about the subject, right? Yet it’s better to have information, to put it out in the open and to talk.

Bijlefeld did find promising news. There are workers whose employers have set up on-site centers where employees can share meals with their children and enjoy an extra measure of security about who’s minding the kids. She also turned up a list of smaller initiatives employers can try. Some don’t cost a dime, and some can actually save a company money.

She also turned up a group I’d never heard of — the Employer Child Care Council. The Fairfax County business coalition is lobbying local government on behalf of working parents, asking them to help ease the child-care crunch.

It’s an encouraging move. If nothing else, employees of the 17 companies that make up the council will know their employers care.