For months now, parents have been doing the impossible. With schools and daycares closed, we’ve become full-time caregivers and educators, while, in many cases, continuing to work from home. This double duty is not only draining, it’s unsustainable.
Last November, I became a father for the first time. I was elated. Then, two months later, COVID-19 was discovered in Toronto. As Chair of the Toronto Board of Health, I entered the busiest and most stressful period of my career just as my son was smiling for the first time, as my wife finished healing from childbirth, and as we both learned to live with little sleep and the new-parent feeling of constant cluelessness.
My days in those months started with an early-morning emergency briefing, followed by back-to-back meetings and calls on Toronto’s response to the pandemic. At night, my wife Grace and I took care of our newborn son, Jude. It was exhausting. As the number of cases in the city began to increase, I realized that my work meant I was too exposed to safely be around my family. I was attending in-person meetings and press conferences daily. It broke our hearts, but we were lucky we had an option when Grace and Jude went to stay with relatives out of town. I didn’t see my wife or son for more than six weeks. I missed his first laugh, his first mouthful of solid food, his first bath in the tub rather than our kitchen sink. It was the hardest time of my life.
For most families, though, a decision li...