The transition to parenthood can be an emotional time that presents difficult decisions about balancing parental leave, work, school, and child care. In this brief, we examine how 30 first-time parents of infants in the District of Columbia navigated these decisions. Drawing on in-depth interviews, we explore parents’ ideal child care arrangements, child care searches, experiences returning to work or school, efforts to achieve work-life balance, and the supports they valued. We offer insights and policy recommendations to better support families during this pivotal life stage.

Why This Matters

New parents’ decisions about employment, parental leave, and child care are deeply interconnected, yet policies often address them separately. In the District of Columbia, like in many other parts of the country, infant care ranks as a top household cost and access varies widely. These challenges shape family well-being, workforce participation, and economic stability. By centering parents’ lived experiences, this research offers timely insights for policymakers, employers, and early childhood leaders seeking to strengthen paid family medical leave policy, expand the supply of affordable infant care to meet all families’ needs, and promote flexible workplace practices.

What We Found

• Searching for infant child care felt overwhelming. Most parents knew little about DC’s child care landscape when they learned they were expecting and relied heavily on online searches, word of mouth, and parent networks. Long waitlists, limited transparency about tuition and fees, and difficulty comparing options added to the stress. Many said they wished they had started earlier and had clearer, centralized resources to guide them.
• The cost and location of child care drove most decisions, even as parents prioritized quality. Parents consistently framed their search around proximity to home or work, schedule fit, transportation, and affordability. Though they valued the developmental benefits of high-quality care, the “sticker shock” of infant child care costs, often rivaling rent or mortgage payments, forced tradeoffs that reshaped work, budgets, and caregiving plans.
• Returning to work was emotionally and logistically challenging. Parents, particularly those with shorter employment leave periods, overwhelmingly wished they had more time to recover. Sleep deprivation, breastfeeding and pumping, and the mental load of balancing work and household responsibilities made the transition difficult. Access to paid family medical leave, flexibility in setting a return date, supportive partners, flexible employers, and reliable child care eased the adjustment.
• Parents called for better alignment across paid family medical leave, child care, and workplace policies. Recommendations included expanding paid leave, broadening access to child care subsidies to lower costs, improving access to clear and timely child care information, and encouraging flexible work arrangements to promote family well-being and workforce retention.

How We Did It

From October 2023 to January 2024, we conducted in-depth interviews with 30 first-time parents of infants living in DC. Interviews lasted about 75 minutes and were conducted in English and Spanish, either in person or virtually. Parents lived across DC’s eight wards and varied by income level, marital status, work and child care arrangements, and other characteristics.