The Trump administration wants to give married parents money to stay at home. Will it be enough?

The Trump administration wants to give married parents money to stay at home. Will it be enough? Experts say the proposed program prioritizes parents in ‘traditional families’, ignoring the flexibility needed that all families need to support themselves

Erica Hall and her husband knew that raising kids wouldn’t be cheap.

They intentionally had their children five years apart because paying for two in daycare would have been too expensive. When her first child was born, Hall had to self-fund her maternity leave by drawing on savings. And recently, Hall was laid off from her tech job, leaving her at a crossroads.

“Do we move to a lower-cost daycare? What kind of job should I look for? Can I dial back now?” said Hall, who lives in Seattle. And perhaps the most essential of all questions: “Do we need to completely 100% replace my income?”

More American families than ever consist of two working parents: 52% are dual-income households, compared to 31% in 1975, according to the Pew Research Center. Eight out of 10 of these families say the arrangement has been beneficial to their finances.

Despite this shift in family dynamics, the Trump administration has remained focused on an agenda that emphasizes a “traditional” family structure, where one parent stays home to take care of children.

As part of this agenda, the White House is considering a program that would pay parents $9,000 annually to stay at home, using reallocated funds that are now used for federal programs that typically support single mothers and low-income families, according to the New York Times.

The plan was reportedly proffered by JD Vance, a potential 2028 presidential candidate, who has proclaimed himself a defender of “pro-family” policies. The vice-president penned a Wall Street Journal op-ed in 2021 criticizing federal spending on daycare, claiming that “young children from average, healthy homes can be harmed by spending long hours in childcare.”

“It turns out that normal Americans care more about their families than their jobs, and want a family policy that doesn’t shunt their kids into crap daycare so they can enjoy more ‘freedom’ in the paid labor force,” he wrote on social media at the time.

As vice-president, Vance has continued to angle himself as a defender of families. “To the radicals who wish to abolish my family and the thousands and millions of other families across our country, we have a simple message for them: stay the hell away from our kids!” Vance said at the Republican’s midterm convention in September.

But experts and parents who spoke to the Guardian said the proposed program for stay-at-home parents prioritizes a single type of family structure and ignores the flexibility that families need to support themselves and their children.