New York Times columnist Farhad Manjoo on Wednesday related the struggles of working at home during lockdown with children. There’s chaos. Broken toilets. Incredibly cute antics. Also, the inability to get anything done.

Manjoo later reveals his hope that “cross-society parental stress under pandemic could forge a new parental voting bloc. That perhaps now universal child care will be regarded as a necessity, not some kind of indulgence.”

What if instead creating a place to ship our kids off to, we changed the landscape of work schedules and workplaces? Don’t get me wrong; having more childcare options that are high quality and affordable would be a good thing, especially for single parents of young kids. The problem is that overall, our ability to work does largely depend on having a “place to send our children during the day.” It shouldn’t.