Are today’s workplace policies working for parents? And how much have they really changed from the ones our families navigated a generation ago?
For many of us who were raised in working-parent households, the answer is simple: not enough.
We were the early drop off kids, the ones bundled into cars before sunrise so our parents could clock in on time. We ate cafeteria breakfasts, waited out late pickups, and shaped our routines around someone else’s shift. Even without the words for it, we knew something was missing: time, support, or flexibility.
And now, we’re grown. We’ve begun to enter the workforce with a sharp memory of what our parents endured and what we quietly processed as their children. We’re not just hoping for change. We are expecting it.
My mom is a nurse. Her day started before the sun came up, which meant mine did, too. At five years old, I was dropped off at before-school programs so she could make it to the hospital by 7:30 a.m. I remember the early morning rides, the kind where only she seemed to understand that morning could still look like night. I was just wondering why the moon was still out. Growing up there were stretches when I wouldn’t see her in daylight. Still, she found time to pick up school supplies, run errands after 12-hour shifts, and take me out on her days off, not to rest, but to show up.
She did everything she could with what the system gave her. But it shouldn’t have required so much sacrifice.
This is not a conversation for pity, it’s a call for recognition. Because while resilience is admirable, we’ve seen what it costs. And many of us are no longer willing to repeat that cycle.
"She did everything she could with what the system gave her. But it shouldn't have required so much sacrifice."
I’m a first-generation Haitian-American, the daughter of two working parents who gave everything so I could chase a future they never had time to dream of. That memory isn’t something I’ll set aside in the workplace. It’s the foundation for how I show up and what I advocate for.
In an informal survey I ran with my peers, I gathered a few insights of other young adults raised by working parents. I was later able to hold a couple interviews and hear stories that had different textures but the same heartbeat. One recalled how her mom’s flexible job allowed her to be there when it counted, school events, milestones, and emergencies. Another spoke about the struggle of growing up with a parent who worked long hours, missing moments that mattered because her job left no room to adjust.
Both of them still want children someday. But both are already drawing boundaries they watched their parents live without. They’re unwilling to accept confined schedules or inflexible systems. They’re seeking careers that allow space for both ambition and care.
>> Check out the "Working Mothers Speak" Report, capturing the experience of working mothers
The impact of workplace structure doesn’t just touch parents, it shapes the next generation, too. And those kids grow up, like we did, with lasting memories.
We’re entering the workforce with expectations rooted in lived experience. We know what it means to be juggled between shifts. We remember the stress our parents carried, and how quietly we learned to carry some of it, too.
This isn’t about asking for favors. It’s about building environments where care and work aren’t at odds and where showing up for your family isn’t something that has to happen on the margins of your career.
This is the generation that knows what didn’t work, and we’re ready to build what will.