I wasn’t prepared for how complicated it would be — and how emotionally fraught. In one very significant way, my partner and I have been pretty lucky in the child care department. We were living in Boston when our son was born, and after working for many years in grant-writing, I decided to work from home as a freelance writer and watch my infant son until we got to the top of the year-long waitlist for subsidized daycare. We learned about the program from family members and found out that we qualified after some easy Googling and a few phone calls. The daycare voucher, provided by the Child Care and Development Block Grant, covered two-thirds of the $1,500 a month costs. Requirements for this program vary from state to state, and so it’s not always easy to qualify. Only 15 percent of eligible families actually take advantage of this federal program. The other underutilized child care program for families who meet the poverty guidelines is Head Start, which provides high quality, free care, and long term benefits