I love the first day of school. It's usually a warm Wednesday at the end of August, yet I find myself humming "It's the most wonderful time of the year" several months before Christmas. On this day my house buzzes with a universal feeling of excitement mixed with a touch of nervousness and sprinkled with a pinch of sadness that summer break is over. The yellow buses come, collect my children, and off they go to learn. I am left -- standing in the driveway -- with a huge smile because I'm grateful that we have a high quality public school system. But that's not all.

The truth is -- I know how good I've got "it" and how fortunate we are to have a system in place that serves all children in Vermont. When my kids were younger I felt anxious about dropping them off at day care and preschool. Their schools were accredited and the teachers were wonderful, but I still couldn't fully focus at work because I was on edge about so many things.

I felt squeezed -- like there was a rope around me that tightened up when things did not go according to plan -- and there were many factors conspiring against my plans. I can remember monthlong stretches when one or the other child was sick, and then we would pass it around the family. I felt constant guilt because I was so unreliable in almost every aspect of my life (except for being a mom) during those years.

That metaphorical rope tightened more when it came time to pay for child care each month. Like so many parents, we were already paying property taxes to support public education, but there are few public options for children under the age of 6, and it felt like we were hemorrhaging money with no end in sight.

But it did end, and that phase of parenting is over for me. While there are many things about raising babies and toddlers that I loved and miss, there are a few that I don't feel the need to revisit. However, I can't abandon the issue of child care just because my kids are older. Improved access to affordable child care for all families in Vermont is not going to magically happen unless more people advocate for it.