“How long do you wanna be loved?
Is forever enough, is forever enough?
How long do you want to be loved?
Is forever enough
‘Cause I’m never, never giving you up”
“Lullaby” — The Chicks

A stripped-down version of this song as part of The Chicks’ (at that time known as The Dixie Chicks before they rebranded) VH1 Storytellers special caught my ear years ago due to its tranquility and delicate harmony.

The song was part of the group’s seventh studio album, titled “Taking the Long Way,” released in 2006.

The album had tremendous success, debuting in the top spot in Billboard album sales and being certified as double-platinum. The album also won five Grammy awards.

“Lullaby” was not a big chart success from the album, not even released as a single, but the song gained significant traction among fans as the song was featured in multiple television shows during tender moments between child(ren) and parent(s).

Genuinely caring for our children and wishing them love and success is a common sentiment among parents.

This extends to times when we as parents simply cannot be there for our children while we work, and they are then left in the hands of another caregiver, whether that be a family member, a friend, or a childcare provider, such as a daycare.

As a country, there is a significant shortage of child care providers of all varieties (on a national basis, pre-kindergarten schooling often is lumped in with child care, so the variety of “types” of care provided runs a very large range), especially as child care became a dangerous spot to be during the pandemic.

Parents were at home with their children and therefore kept children home, meaning a notable loss of revenue for many daycare providers, though the children who did attend required significant health and safety protocols due to the presence of the pandemic.

The pandemic actually brought our family “officially” into the world of being a childcare provider, though not by choice. We had done daycare to some degree when we were first involved in foster care, as I had a work-from-home job, and my wife had odd hours that allowed for both of us to assist the foster families in town that often struggled to find a daycare.

The potential to open a daycare in-home, or even rent space to do so, was something we had discussed as a five-year plan (or perhaps farther off), but when my wife’s position with Center for Independence was eliminated in March 2020, we had to struggle to ensure we could make ends meet while also having our own children home from school, as ordered by the governor.

CFI then aggressively fought my wife receiving any unemployment benefits as she had willingly taken some part-time shifts with the agency to help ensure our household stayed afloat.

Believe it or not, being a journalist during COVID did not provide the sort of income to be a one-earner household.

So, that future plan became an immediate reality.

At this point, for multiple reasons (though that's another column altogether), we were no longer foster parents and immediately found that the daycare need in the Huron community was going to run us afoul of daycare licensing opportunities through the state, due to the hours of operation.

That meant that the millions of dollars in grant money (hundreds of thousands of which was siphoned to a state legislator’s facility, with plenty more under investigation) was money for which we were not able to apply, as an individual, unlicensed provider.

However, especially among those who have shift work jobs in town, the childcare need was constant, meaning that my wife has always had a full roster of children to provide care.

Gov. Kristi Noem has repeatedly made public statements about her desire to support childcare providers, pushing for significant funds to be distributed.

However, at the same time, her administration’s Department of Social Services (DSS) has made being licensed increasingly difficult and also had more than twice the investigations in 2022 as in 2019 of all daycare providers, licensed and unlicensed, according to numbers cited in a story by Keloland last spring.

Child care is not cheap for the parents. With minimal federal and state funding to keep prices down, as many other industries benefit from in price regulation, the childcare industry truly must pay for itself, and the rates paid for an hour of daycare are often half — or less — the hourly rate that you’d pay a babysitter in the evening to watch children while you had a dinner date with your significant other.

But even at $3 per hour per child, for instance, a family that has two children in daycare for a parents’ entire 40-hour work week is looking at an annual cost of more than $12,000 for daycare. In Huron, the median annual household income is around $48,000.

That’s one-quarter of the average Huron family’s pre-tax income going to child care.

Perhaps that’s why there’s been a recent rash of parents opening investigations with DSS on daycares. A lawyer friend in the state has noted that attempted lawsuits of daycares have gone through the roof since announced grant and assistance funds were made public, so the general public knew which daycares received “free” money and how much.

Of course, a similar rundown of farmers who received corn subsidies to determine a dealership's price on that person’s equipment purchases would be absolutely illegal, but that’s a whole other discussion.

To the legal profession’s credit within the state, most attempted daycare legal filings have been rebuffed as not having evidence enough to even make a civil case, but many of those who are bringing cases are then told without a DSS investigation to utilize in the filing, the case would be dead on arrival. Lo and behold, an increase in complaints to DSS.

Of course, there are absolutely warranted complaints that should be investigated. We’ve self-reported from the daycare, and cameras within the house are set up to not only protect the children but also to protect us from false accusations.

That said, with the multiple investigations around town recently, we’ve strongly considered an “exit” strategy from child care, and we’re not the only provider in town feeling the same way.

So, we’re setting up an economy that requires every adult in a household to work — and more able-bodied workers are active in the workforce than at any time in recorded workforce statistical history, despite what talking heads with a reason to try to call the current generation "lazy" due to open job listings may say.

Again, that’s a whole other column!

Laws also force anyone pregnant in the state into having a child, putting an additional financial burden on many who may not be in a position to afford it. Then, families have to afford childcare, which can take roughly a quarter of gross pay.

Childcare providers simply want to extend the love and care that parents give their children. Ensuring they can do that safely, the same way parents are assured that providers are doing childcare safely, should be something legislators from both sides could agree upon.

Instead, we’re headed toward a situation with even more providers closing down. This in turn will restrict employees’ availability to employers because they need to be available for their children.

This issue would seem to hinder that big, statewide campaign about the positive work environment that the state provides, wouldn’t it?

It is entirely worthy of discussion that while South Dakota is truly a wonderful place to live, work and raise a family, perhaps it would be in everyone’s best interest to have the childcare issue addressed before new prospective residents begin bringing additional children who need care.