Every company wants a productive workforce, but for many moms, one of the biggest obstacles to getting through the workday begins before they ever arrive at work. A daycare provider calls in sick. School is unexpectedly closed. A babysitter cancels at the last minute. Suddenly, a parent who planned to spend the day caring for patients, teaching students, managing a team, or helping customers is scrambling to find another solution.

These disruptions are a familiar reality for working families, but their impact extends far beyond the home. A new report from Moms First's National Business Coalition for Child Care , with analysis by McKinsey & Company, found that child care disruptions cost U.S. businesses up to $70 billion each year through absenteeism, turnover, and lost productivity. Much of that loss comes from foundational workers in healthcare, education, manufacturing, retail, hospitality, and other industries where employees must be physically present to do their jobs.

The numbers are striking, but they only tell part of the story. Behind every missed shift is a parent trying to find backup care. Behind every resignation is someone who could no longer make dependable child care work alongside their career. What begins as a family challenge quickly becomes a business one, contributing to staffing shortages, higher turnover, and lower productivity.

Moms Are Living the Reality Behind the Numbers

For Molly Day, Chief Operating Officer of Moms First, the report represents something much more personal than an economic analysis.

"The numbers in our report represent millions of moments that working parents know all too well," she says. "It's the nurse whose childcare falls through and has to miss a shift. It's the worker who is approaching the end of a three-strike absence policy because of repeated childcare disruptions. It's the mom who leaves the workforce every summer because she can't find care when school is out."

Those examples illustrate why child care has become a workforce issue rather than simply a family issue. Every disruption forces parents into difficult decisions about work, finances, and caregiving. Mothers often shoulder an even greater share of those responsibilities, making them more likely to reduce their hours, turn down career opportunities, or leave the workforce altogether.

Research published by the National Library of Medicine has also linked work-family conflict with higher levels of stress and burnout among working mothers. While every family's circumstances are different, the emotional toll of constantly solving child care challenges can be just as significant as the financial one.

"When we talk about billions in lost productivity," Day says, "we're really talking about families doing everything they can to hold it all together. Too many mothers are carrying the weight of a system that wasn't built to support them."

Moms Need More Than Flexibility. They Need Employers Who Think Differently.

For years, child care has largely been framed as a personal responsibility, leaving families to figure out solutions on their own. The report argues that mindset no longer reflects today's workforce.

"For a long time, childcare has been treated as a personal problem for moms to solve," Day says. "But our research shows it's an economic and workforce imperative."

When dependable care disappears, businesses feel the effects almost immediately through missed shifts, scheduling disruptions, and employee turnover. That is especially true for foundational workers whose jobs cannot be performed remotely.

The report also highlights employers that have taken a different approach. Rather than viewing child care as another workplace perk, they have invested in practical solutions such as backup care, predictable scheduling, child care stipends, and partnerships with local providers. Those efforts helped improve attendance and retention while reducing the costly cycle of replacing experienced employees.

"The companies leading on childcare aren't doing it because it's the right thing to do, even though it is," Day says. "They're doing it because it's a smart investment in the workforce their business depends on."

As organizations continue to search for ways to recruit and retain employees, child care has become part of a broader conversation about business resilience. Investing in employees means recognizing the realities that affect their ability to show up for work consistently.

Moms Are Challenging How We Define Success at Work

Few people understand that connection better than Tricia Sciortino, CEO of BELAY and author of Rise Up & Lead Well .

Before leading an award-winning remote staffing company, Sciortino worked in retail, where long hours and lengthy commutes were simply part of the job. Like many ambitious professionals, she believed success meant being indispensable.

Then she received a text message that changed her perspective.

While she was at work, her babysitter sent a photo of her daughter's first steps.

"I was miles away when my daughter took her first steps," Sciortino says. "Seeing one of the biggest moments of her little life in a text instead of in person crushed me."

Looking back, she realized the work that kept her away from home was far less important than she had believed.

"I'd traded a moment I could never get back for a task that could have waited," she says.

That experience became a turning point, reshaping how she measured success as both a leader and a parent.

"I realized I'd confused being busy with being valuable," she says. "After that, I started measuring success by what I protected, not just what I produced."

For Sciortino, that shift eventually influenced the culture she would build at BELAY, where she believes employees should never feel forced to choose between meaningful work and the people waiting for them at home.

Moms Are Building Better Workplaces by Setting Better Boundaries

That turning point didn't simply change Sciortino's outlook. It shaped the kind of company she wanted to lead.

Today, she describes herself as a "guilt-free CEO," though she admits the phrase can be misunderstood.

"Being a guilt-free CEO doesn't mean I'm immune to guilt," she says. "It means I don't let it drive."

For Sciortino, that philosophy isn't about working less. It's about working with intention. She built BELAY around the idea that leaders don't have to sacrifice their personal lives to build successful businesses. Systems, delegation, and trust became part of the company's foundation rather than afterthoughts.

Her approach reflects a broader shift in how many leaders are thinking about work. Success is becoming less about who spends the most hours online and more about creating an environment where people can consistently perform at a high level without sacrificing every other part of their lives.

That mindset also changes how organizations support working parents.

"The biggest misconception is treating flexibility like it's an employee perk instead of a business advantage," Sciortino says. "People do their best work when leaders trust them with how they get the job done and hold them accountable for the results."

For working mothers , that trust can make an enormous difference. A workplace where employees feel comfortable taking a child to the doctor or adjusting their schedules during a school emergency often creates stronger loyalty than one built around rigid policies.

Moms Benefit When Businesses Invest in Stability

One of the report's most encouraging conclusions is that employers are not powerless.

"One of the biggest misconceptions is that these costs are invisible or unavoidable," Day says. "But when childcare breaks down, businesses absorb the consequences every day through missed shifts, turnover, lower productivity, and recruiting costs."

The report found that employers who invested in practical solutions often saw measurable improvements. Backup child care, more predictable scheduling, child care stipends, and partnerships with local providers helped employees stay at work while reducing costly turnover.

"There isn't a one-size-fits-all solution," Day says. "Different workforces have different needs."

That flexibility matters because the workforce itself has changed. A hospital operates differently than a manufacturing plant. A retailer faces different scheduling challenges than a school district. Yet each depends on employees consistently arriving at work.

Supporting parents also reduces a constant source of stress.

"So much of the burnout parents experience comes from constantly trying to solve for childcare while also meeting the demands of work," Day says. "When something falls through, parents, especially mothers, often blame themselves, even though the problem is systemic."

Those words capture something many working parents understand instinctively. Child care disruptions rarely stay contained to one afternoon. They create ripples that affect job performance, finances, mental health, and family relationships. When reliable care is easier to access, parents spend less energy managing crises and more on their work and the people they care about.

Moms Shouldn't Have to Choose Between Career and Family

One lesson stayed with Sciortino throughout her career. She realized she had become much better at delegating responsibilities at work than she had at home.

"I learned that I was much better at delegating at work than I was at home," she says. "Families are teams, too. Moms don't have to lead them alone."

That perspective challenges a message many women have absorbed for years: that being a good parent means carrying every responsibility yourself. Instead, Sciortino believes strong families function much like strong organizations. Everyone contributes, responsibilities are shared, and asking for help is viewed as a strength rather than a weakness.

She also hopes mothers stop believing they have to prove they deserve time with the people they love.

"You don't have to earn the right to protect your life," she says.

It is a simple statement, yet one that stands in sharp contrast to a culture that often celebrates constant busyness. For many working mothers, protecting family time can feel like falling behind professionally. Sciortino argues the opposite. Clear priorities often make people better leaders because they become more intentional about where they invest their time and energy.

Moms Are Changing the Conversation About Work

For decades, child care has largely been viewed as a private family responsibility. The findings from Moms First suggest that approach no longer reflects today's workplace.

When employees cannot find dependable care, businesses feel the effects through staffing shortages, higher turnover, recruiting costs, and lost productivity. Those outcomes are measurable, but they begin with deeply personal moments inside individual families.

That is why the report feels timely. As employers rethink workforce strategies in response to changing economic conditions, child care deserves a place in those conversations. Supporting working parents is not simply about improving morale or offering another workplace benefit. It is about strengthening the workforce that businesses rely on every day.

The mothers represented in this research have understood that reality for years. They have managed canceled daycare pickups, unexpected school closures, and impossible scheduling conflicts while continuing to show up for their families and their jobs.

Now the data tells the same story.

Investing in child care is an investment not just in moms, but in people. For employers looking to build stable teams and retain experienced employees, that may prove to be one of the smartest business decisions they can make.