The most recent data shows that millennials are having children later in life than the generation before them. According to a study by Goldman Sachs, the median age for millennials to get married has increased from 23 to 30!

As I get older, I am bombarded with the following question: “When are you going to have children, Mia?”  It happens in every single family conversation! I usually shrug off the question and say that I’m just not ready. The truth? I am a struggling millennial, and between paying off my student loans, paying off my car, paying for insurance, and paying for the occasional meal out, I just can’t afford children. At least not right now.

The clash between the American dream and the American reality has gotten dramatically worse for millennials seeking to have a career and family, a battle outlined in stark details in a new report by Child Care Aware^® of America.

President Trump submitted his FY 2018 budget request to Congress. As expected, the President maintained his commitment to reducing all non-defense, discretionary programs by a total of $54 billion. However, his proposal includes cutting all federal support for two programs that are vital to low-income and working class communities; the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (CCLC) and the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) programs.

UPDATED post: Last Friday afternoon, the House of Representatives withdrew a scheduled vote on H.R. 1628, the "American Health Care Act (AHCA) of 2017," after it was very clear that House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) did not have the votes for passage.  This came after a late-night deal of adding a provision to H.R. 1628 that would have cut $15 billion in mandatory care, as required under the Affordable Care Act of 2010, which would have impacted maternal and mental health coverage.

When I heard you utter the words “affordable, quality child care for all families” at the Republican convention last summer, I literally stood up and cheered in the middle of my living room. It’s one of the many, and arguably one of the most important, issues facing working families. These are the families that I care deeply about and have been fighting for over the last decade.

Advocacy is one of the most important and most underutilized tools we have to influence child care policy in the political system. And we need to work on that – fast!