I guess I can really speak to that. We had a barn fire in 1995. I was expecting my third child at the time. We moved two weeks after she was born. I was responsible for 90 sows, farrow to finish, which is about 1,000 animals, and David went back to work. Never do that. It was a very trying time.
That was our reality at the time. We moved to a new community and we really didn't have the support. Because my other two children were three and four years old, I was able to get a babysitter after school from four to eight. I needed to do all my work between those hours. Between four and eight I had to do an eight-hour day. My husband worked before work and after work. We got some help on weekends. We worked. That was our reality. It was just a matter of the timing.
I was lucky. I was the farm manager, so I always brought my children to day care. There are many folks who don't have that luxury. Number one is accessible day care. Number two is that the finances are not there. Number three, there is the assumption that we can work and look after them at the same time.
Having said that, my kids, especially my youngest daughter, were quite quick to tell us we were too busy for them. If they expected to spend some time with us, they needed to work with us. I think they have great work ethics today, but at the same time I'm concerned that some of their childhood was not what it could have been.
Certainly those are huge issues on the farm. It is a huge load to carry. In my case, with David working off the farm, if he ever was home I needed him in the barn fixing what I had broken that week. Then the full measure of family responsibility was on my shoulders because I needed him to be elsewhere.
Does that answer your question?