‘If we don’t use this, it’s going to disappear.’ Bright Horizons and the perils of employer-sponsored, profit-driven childcare

The useful part

By the time Katie returned to work after parental leave, her daughter had started attending a day care close to her apartment. On days when the day care was closed or she needed childcare coverage, there was a childcare center conveniently located in her office. The center was run by Bright Horizons, one of the largest and best-known childcare providers in the country.

How it works

• Because the center was accessible only to employees of the financial services company where she worked, availability was rarely an issue, and the cost of care was heavily subsidized.
• I really didn't miss any work, even though we were technically without regular childcare for a month." This is precisely the selling point that Bright Horizons offers employers, a...
• On days when her baby was at the center, she could drop by to breastfeed her, instead of pumping at the office as usual.
• When Katie unexpectedly had to move her daughter to a new day care, this access to backup care—those alternate arrangements parents seek out when their usual childcare falls through—turned out to be essential.
• "They didn't have a spot for her until she was officially 1, and we were having some issues with our regular day care," she says.

What to take from it

"It was really, really valuable to me," says Katie, who asked to use a pseudonym to speak freely. "If you were to have a conversation with my employer and really get down to it, it was valuable to them, too.