By creating an environment where people can’t spend, lockdowns are forcing families to rethink their finances and their priorities. Those who aren’t out of a job are saving more, too. And with schools closed across the nation, parents are spending an inordinate amount of time with their children. Add it all up, and it just may lead to a complete paradigm shift, one in which parents realize that what they thought was necessary before the COVID-19 pandemic isn’t actually necessary.

For 30 years, the media have been there to tell us it’s impossible for one parent to stay home with their children, even though this flies in the face of cold-hard facts: The majority of married mothers with children under 18 are either not employed or are employed part time, and they are not wealthy. Moreover, 67% of mothers with children under 18 have gone on the record to say their “ideal” work situation is to work part time or not at all. Yet rather than discuss economical ways to make this happen, we tell them it can’t be done.