Many parents in Columbia are faced with a lack of affordable daycare and housing. According to Child Care Aware of America, the average price of childcare alone in Missouri is $10,555 per year. Statewide and local resources aim to alleviate the costs and pressures of raising children.
Longtime Columbia resident Cynthia Lopez is currently taking care of her four-year-old granddaughter and has two kids of her own, who are now in their thirties. A large difference between her parenting then and now is finances, she said. She calls the cost of childcare in Columbia “astronomical.”
“I think that a lot of parents would go to work if they could afford childcare,” Lopez said. “These younger people that are having children don’t really have much of an opportunity to make a good enough wage to pay the daycare.”
Community member Lisa Bragg runs a local consignment sale, Consign with Grace, out of Grace Bible Church. Sales like Bragg's provide an affordable means of buying items like toys, clothes, strollers and cribs.
“When I was a young mom, for me, it was hard to clothe my children for cheap,” Bragg said. “So, when I started Consign with Grace, with $50 I could clothe my kids.”
Kelsey Cunningham is a parent support specialist at The University of Missouri's WarmLine, a toll-free number any parent, guardian or caretaker can contact for assistance navigating social systems in Missouri. About 20% of the calls WarmLine gets are for basic needs, Cunningham said. These include financial assistance, rental assistance, housing, transportation, diapers and childcare.
“I’m seeing parents not be able to afford what they need for their kids, and it’s really disheartening,” Cunningham said.
Cunningham said childcare can cost as much as $10,000 to $11,000 a year, “if you’re lucky.” On top of that, diapers can cost $900 to $1,000 a year and baby wipes about $450 a year.
While there are statewide systems parents can go to for things like Medicaid, the application process can be difficult to navigate.
The WarmLine team walks callers through every step of the application process: how the process works, what number to contact, who to ask for and even the best time of day to call. The program has reached nearly 114 Missouri counties and has a database with over 4,000 resources.
WarmLine's resources are not limited to financial supports. About 24% of the calls the WarmLine gets have to do with what Cunningham calls "family functions." This can mean grief, divorce, child abuse and neglect concerns, mental health concerns, substance abuse concerns and legal concerns.
Lopez has dealt with some of these issues herself — the responsibility of caring for her granddaughter was not a choice.
One day, Lopez got a phone call from her granddaughter’s father. “He asked if I could keep her. He said he’d be back in a week, and I did not see him again,” Lopez said. Her story is just one example of parents or guardians dealing with the unexpected.
“I think that we have this idea that when we become a parent it’s going to go a certain way,” Cunningham said. “We think it’s gonna go smoothly, that people are gonna be there no matter what, and when that changes, it’s emotional.”
Though both women have dealt with the financial and emotional struggles of parenting in Columbia in one way or another, Lopez still believes that in parenting, “the best memories are the ones that don’t cost a dime.”