时代周刊:新冠肺炎给托儿行业造成的困境(1)

COVID-19 Creates a Child-care Catch-22

新冠肺炎给托儿行业造成的困境

By Abby Vesoulis

文/艾比·维索利斯

Tamela Crouch¹ never thought she’d have to worry about childcare again.

塔梅拉·克劳奇从未想过她还会为照看孩子的问题发愁。

But when her adult daughter died from complications of a heart infection in 2014,

2014年，已经成年的女儿因心脏感染并发症离开人世时，

Crouch moved to Montana to help raise her toddler granddaughters with each of their dads.

克劳奇就搬到了蒙大拿州，帮女婿们照顾仍在蹒跚学步的孙女儿们。

Suddenly, nearing 50, Crouch was plunged² back into a world of car seats, cartoons and parenting logistics.

一夜之间，年近五十的克劳奇便倒退回了整天都是汽车座椅、卡通和为孩子忙前忙后的日子。

Eventually, the multi-household family mastered a schedule that allowed all three adults to take care of the kids and keep working.

一番调整，这个关系复杂的大家庭总算是制定出了三个成年人都能一边照顾孩子一边工作的时间表。

When COVID-19 hit and the girls’ day care closed, the family managed at first.

新冠肺炎来袭，女孩儿们报的日托随后歇业。一开始，这家人应付得还不错。

The casino where Crouch worked also shuttered,

后来，克劳奇工作的赌场也歇业了，

so she looked after her grandkids while their dads continued to go to their essential jobs.

于是，她接手了照顾孙女儿们的工作，这样她们的爸爸就可以继续他们的主要工作了。

Then Crouch was asked to return to work on May 11—

5月11日那天，克劳奇收到了复工的通知——

a month before the only affordable³ childcare facility she could find was set to reopen.

而她能找到的唯一负担得起的托儿机构重新开张的时间比她复工的时间晚了足足一个月。

“If you send them to a private camp, you’re looking at $1,000 for a week,” Crouch says, “and we can’t do that.”

“如果把她们送去私营托儿所，一周就得交1000美元，”克劳奇说，“我们也没那个条件。”

As states loosen stay-at-home orders and businesses call back their workers,

随着各州陆续放松隔离要求，企业陆续召回员工，

families across the nation are finding themselves in a similar bind⁴.

全国各地的家庭都陷入了类似的困境。

With most childcare centers, schools and summer camps still closed, how can caregivers go back to work?

大部分托儿中心、学校和夏令营都未恢复营业，家长们怎么重返工作岗位？

And if they can’t go back to work now,

如果他们现在不能回去工作，

how will they afford alternate forms of childcare so they eventually can?

又怎么负担其他形式的育儿服务，腾出时间回去工作？

It’s a dilemma⁵ that’s hurting businesses too.

企业界也未能幸免于这一困境的打击。

Even before COVID-19 struck, U.S. firms were losing billions of dollars every year

早在新冠肺炎爆发之前，

when employees couldn’t report to work because of breakdowns⁶ in childcare.

托儿服务停摆导致员工无法上班问题给美国企业造成的年度损失就已经高达数十亿美元。

1 crouch   

v.蹲伏，蜷缩，低头弯腰；n.蹲伏

参考例句：

• I crouched on the ground.我蹲在地上。
• He crouched down beside him.他在他的旁边蹲下来。

2 plunged   

v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降

参考例句：

• The train derailed and plunged into the river. 火车脱轨栽进了河里。
• She lost her balance and plunged 100 feet to her death. 她没有站稳，从100英尺的高处跌下摔死了。

3 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

4 bind   

vt.捆，包扎；装订；约束；使凝固；vi.变硬

参考例句：

• I will let the waiter bind up the parcel for you.我让服务生帮你把包裹包起来。
• He wants a shirt that does not bind him.他要一件不使他觉得过紧的衬衫。

5 dilemma   

n.困境，进退两难的局面

参考例句：

• I am on the horns of a dilemma about the matter.这件事使我进退两难。
• He was thrown into a dilemma.他陷入困境。

6 breakdowns   

n.分解( breakdown的名词复数 )；衰竭；（车辆或机器的）损坏；统计分析

参考例句：

• Her old car was unreliable, so the trip was plagued by breakdowns. 她的旧车老不听使唤，一路上总是出故障。 来自辞典例句
• How do we prevent these continual breakdowns? 我们如何防止这些一再出现的故障？ 来自辞典例句