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- Tim Walz said during the VP debate that help from family members should not be the solution to childcare.
- JD Vance previously suggested that grandparents help out more to solve the childcare crisis.
- Vance said during the debate that families should have more options to care for their kids.
Childcare received its spotlight during the first and only vice presidential debate.
On Tuesday night, Sen. JD Vance and Gov. Tim Walz took the debate stage in New York to discuss a range of topics, including healthcare, housing, and the economy. On the latter issue, both candidates were asked how they would address the childcare crisis in the US — and Walz took the opportunity to indirectly rebut past comments Vance made regarding childcare solutions.
“The economy works best when it works for all of us,” Walz said. “And so a paid family medical leave program. And I will tell you, go to the families or go to the businesses and ask them. As far as childcare, you have to take it at both the supply and the demand side. You can’t expect the most important people in our lives to take in our children.”
Walz appeared to be referencing Vance’s comments in September during a conversation with conservative Charlie Kirk. Vance said that “one of the ways that you might be able to relieve a little bit of pressure on people who are paying so much for daycare is, maybe grandma or grandpa wants to help out a little bit more, or maybe there’s an aunt or uncle that wants to help out a little bit more.”
His comments sparked criticism from grandparents and childcare workers who argued that relying on family members for childcare is not feasible. Many older Americans are facing financial insecurity in retirement — some are even having to return to work to stay financially afloat — and they lack the time, money, and physical capacity to support the young children in their families.
Vance said during the debate that families need more options to choose how they want to approach childcare.
“A lot of young women would like to go back to work immediately. Some would like to spend a little time home with the kids. Some would like to spend longer at home with the kids. We should have a family care model that makes choice possible,” he said.
“One of the biggest complaints I hear from young families is people who feel like they don’t have options like they’re choosing between going to work or taking care of their kids,” he added. “That is an incredible burden to put on American families.”
Vance’s spokesperson, Taylor Van Kirk, also previously told BI that Vance believes the government should pay family members for childcare support. Vance and Walz’s campaigns did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Still, childcare costs remain high. Care.com’s 2024 Cost of Care Report found that average day care costs for infants have surged from $284 a week in 2022 to $321 in 2023.
Renne Bock, 57, has worked in the childcare industry for over a decade, and she previously told BI that grandparents “should not be the fallback for childcare.” Instead, the US should focus on putting more money into early childhood programs and better incentivizing younger people to enter the field to fill positions in high-need areas.
“When you ask your typical grandparent, great aunt to basically take on the caregiving responsibilities for a very young child, you’re not even acknowledging that they may not have the physical or mental capacity to safely handle a child, right? They may not have the financial resources to handle a child,” Bock said.
