Parents are not OK. No caregivers are, really. But parents of children who are too young to be vaccinated against Covid-19 are most certainly not OK at this point in the pandemic.

Back in December 2020, when we were all 20 years younger, the Annie E. Casey Foundation reported that “one in five people in households with children (21%) have reported feeling down, depressed or hopeless in the previous week.” Today, I’d imagine that number is closer to five in five.

It has always been a struggle for parents in this country. There is no safety net, no national standards for what constitutes quality (and affordable) child care, and, at a most basic level, no paid leave. Pile on a global health crisis, and it’s no wonder so many of us are reaching a breaking point or experiencing parental burnout—particularly new parents, who are figuring it all out for the first time, without any of the support systems we had planned on.