TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — When Florida state Rep. Fiona McFarland's infant daughter, Grace Melton, crawled for the first time, the mom of four was right next door, hard at work with her legislative policy staff in the state Capitol.
Thanks to the on-site available in the statehouse, McFarland didn't miss that magical first milestone in her now 7-month-old's young life.
"The sitter I had with her just grabbed me out of my meeting right next door and I came over and got to witness it," McFarland recalled.
As more women and young people run for public office, they bring more than fresh policy ideas to statehouses — some bring their kids.
Like other working parents across the country, some lawmakers scramble to find child care that fits their often unpredictable schedules, at a . Rushing back and forth from their districts, they juggle meetings with constituents and coordinate their children's drop-offs, power through late-night floor sessions and step out to pump breast milk between votes, hoping to make it home for their kids' bedtime.
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"Looking back, I'm like, 'How did I do that?'" Michigan state Sen. Stephanie Chang said, recalling those frenzied years when she was a new legislator and a new mom.
The Democrat used to race across the state with her baby and freezer bags of milk in tow, leaving her daughter with family members so she could make her 9 a.m. committee meetings at the state Capitol in Lansing.
In one of the few industrialized countries that lacks , Chang says is keeping some because they simply "cannot make it all work," leaving young families with fewer advocates to help decide "what we're doing for the future of our children."
As more young parents get elected, advocates push for more support
Some state capitols, mostly built before women could vote, still lack enough accessible bathrooms, advocates say, let alone spaces to comfortably change a baby's diaper or nurse an infant.
"Legislators legislate based on their lived experience," said Liuba Grechen Shirley, founder of the Vote Mama Foundation, which pushes to break barriers that moms face while running for office.
"We have terrible policies that fail women and children across the country because we don't have enough moms serving at any level of government," she said.
As of this year, 33% of state legislators were women, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. Fewer than 8% of those lawmakers are moms of minor children, a Vote Mama analysis found.
Statehouses' child care offerings largely , but advocates say they're gaining some ground.
The Virginia House of Delegates now gives a child care stipend to members with young kids to help cover their expenses during session.
At least allow candidates of any gender running for public office to use campaign funds to pay for child care expenses after the Federal Elections Commission approved the practice for federal candidates in 2018.
A child care space just for Florida lawmakers
In Florida's Capitol, amid the chattering of lobbyists and clicking of high heels, the voices of children like Grace can be heard as they play inside two on-site child care spaces created just for kids of legislators.
McFarland, whose four children are ages 5 and under, was elected for the first time in 2020, the year she also gave birth to her first child. Since then, her public service was fueled by "caffeine and dry shampoo," she joked.
On early mornings before the Capitol's in-house day care opens up, McFarland plops Grace into a bouncy chair on her desk in her legislative office, or holds the baby with one hand as she flips through briefing books.
"Moms will always make it work," the Republican said.
While the House is in session or committee hearings are in swing, McFarland can drop off her daughter at the child care upstairs. It's not open every day and the hours vary, McFarland says.
The staff working in the Capitol's child care are paid out of campaign funds, spokespeople for the House speaker and Senate president said. The initiative grew out of the Legislature's program for lawmakers' spouses, many of whom travel to Tallahassee for session.
After the day care closes for the afternoon, Grace comes back downstairs to nap and play in a nursery McFarland set up in the room next to her office. McFarland also hires sitters to take care of her baby when the child care space isn't open, a cost she pays herself.
Every working parent has to make trade-offs, McFarland said, but having child care in the Capitol means she doesn't have to make quite as many.
Florida's Capitol child care is an "informal" approach, but could serve as a model for legislatures across the country, Grechen Shirley said.
It's a "first step" she said, that states should bolster with other policies like allowing proxy voting, paying lawmakers a "livable wage" and letting candidates use campaign funds to cover child care expenses.
"If we want a legislature that actually reflects our society," she said, "we have to make it easier for young families to run for office and to stay in office."
