This article addresses real challenges and complexities of the childcare burdens that now face so many of us. My husband and I are both tech workers in Palo Alto with very demanding jobs, and we are now also homeschooling two elementary age children. This is not easy, but we are doing it because we've been asked to -- required to -- by our community, for the sake of the community.

I find it distressing that many people I know who have jobs like mine (very demanding, but not essential under the regulation) are skirting the rules and sending their children to small daycares that remain open. To be clear, I fully support childcare for all of the essential workers who are working hard to keep grocery stores and gas stations open, to provide health care, to keep our water on, etc. We should be doing all we can to support these workers. And one of the important things we can do for them is to follow the rules ourselves.

If we're going to go through the sacrifice of social distancing, we should go all in and make it worthwhile. Our community leaders, including local newspapers, mayors, health officers, city council members should take every opportunity to emphasize that the people who violate the rules are letting us all down.

Some portions of this article imply that keeping your child at home is a choice that parents are making ("Despite the program having a larger capacity, she is currently only serving three children because many families are keeping their kids home right now. . . . Some of the families she works with, she said, are keeping their kids home partly out of concern not just for their children but for her own health."). This is not a choice for parents, it is a requirement that they keep their kids at home unless they are an essential worker. It is

Following the requirements, and evaluating how and who should comply, isn't something we should hem and haw and think about. We need to be clear, demanding and, frankly, judgmental of the people who are not complying. We do not have time to waste.