Producer
Jameka Autry
Director
Loira Limbal
Went to Good Pitch
Marisol is a contagiously optimistic mother of two, with three jobs. She’s juggling a part-time job at a supermarket, another at a dentist’s office, and a down stocking job at Nabisco. She’s determined to make a better life for her family. But it comes at a cost. Time that she puts into providing for her family means missed milestones and moments she fears she may never get back.
Shanona is the patient and measured mother of two of Nunu’s overnight kids. She works at least three 12-hour night shifts per week as a pediatric ER nurse. Despite having a fulfilling job, she is crumbling beneath the weight of her grueling schedule. “I absolutely love being a nurse,” she says, “but sometimes I feel like I am always away from my kids. It’s not their fault that I work the way I work, so I just find that energy and try to give them opportunities that I didn’t have. I just want them to be happy. Eventually, I’ll sleep.”
Marisol and Shanona are not alone. In the US, the average American currently works one and a quarter jobs. More and more Americans now work nonstandard hours including late-night and early-morning shifts. Over 40% of mothers are the primary, if not sole, breadwinners for their families. In nearly half the country, it costs more to send a 3 year old to daycare than it does to send an 18 year old to a state college. Not only is childcare expensive, but for Americans working multiple jobs or irregular hours, it can be difficult to find care at all. This spurs a set of impossible decisions that parents, and single mothers in particular, must make every day.
Luckily, Marisol and Shanona have backup.
Their angel is Nunu - a child care provider - who runs a 24 hour home based daycare center, where she lovingly cares for Marisol and Shanona’s children and countless others. Nunu co-founded the daycare with her husband Patrick 22 years ago. While Nunu’s biggest fear is not being there for all of the families that depend on her, Patrick is quietly concerned about Nunu. After Nunu’s recent surgery, he is beginning to question how much longer they can keep their doors open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.