Filing Taxes So Late

I filed for an extension on my taxes in 2020 cause everything was so stressful and difficult to navigate in the summer, making plans for Trivia Mafia, dealing with a young kid, being on the radio, all of it. And now I’m taking a ten minute break from my frantic document finding and hunting. Even after all this work, we will still work with a tax preparer to help us actually file. Why? Well, all the businesses, Trivia Mafia LLC and even a sleepy one like Heiruspecs. . .they are a lot to navigate. Also I just need to be 100% transparent here, child care is outrageously expensive and bakes in inequities from day one. Child care is an essential service, the saints who do it deserve to be paid more, I also don’t think the owners of these spots are lining their pockets in the best of times, nor in the worst of times. But, because my family has means we are paying the equivalent of in-state tuition (it’s inexact since one kid wasn’t in daycare til July of 2020, but the full bill for 2020 is 20k. 20k. There’s some logic to daycare being expensive. It’s hours intensive, you want quality trained professionals doing it, there are tremendous amounts of licensure expenses that go with doing it. But, can we not recognize that of all the places where the financial station of your parents shouldn’t have a bearing on your upbringing this is number one? Give all the children clean classrooms, delicious food, awesome projects, time outside, engaged parents. It’s not happening. And by the time the kids are five, my daughter has a different level of nutrition, of reading comprehension, of so many things than a kindergartner who has been getting catch as catch can child care through informal networks and supports. Quality daycare shouldn’t just be something for the wealthy. Also, it seems to me that most daycares feel very little mandate (and perhaps a lack of finances) to do anything progressive with making their services available on a sliding scale or to otherwise support their care going to a greater cross section of the community they serve. I know there are things on the table that will help make some of the changes permanent in regards to caring for young children and I sincerely hope they do.