A Letter From the Publisher

By Robert L. Miller

Mothers and fathers who work at TIME are no strangers to long hours. Like the parents in this week's cover stories on America's child-care crisis, they must grapple with the question "Who's watching the kids?" The consensus among TIME staffers about the subject's importance stems partly from the fact that it touches each of us, either directly or through colleagues and friends. "The workplace has changed, and the lack of good child care hurts everyone, men included," says Senior Editor Walter Isaacson, who edited the cover.

Finding good child care is difficult, but TIME staffers are resourceful. "It takes investigating," says Picture Researcher Dorothy Affa, whose son John, 2, shuttles between a neighbor and his grandmother on workdays. Reporter-Researcher Lois Gilman, mother of Seth, 8, and Eve, 7, learned firsthand about the need for a guide that includes child-care resources. The result: The New York Parents' Book: Your Guide to Raising Children in the City, due soon from Penguin Books.

Despite the most careful child-care arrangements, needs can affect TIME parents at work. Nation Head Reporter-Researcher Ursula Nadasdy often fields homework calls on the job from Daughter Alexandra. TIME's Olivia Stewart drives from her San Francisco office to Oakland during lunch to ferry her daughter from summer school to the afternoon sitter. Says Atlanta Reporter Joyce Leviton: "These working mothers are the heroines of our time." Nadasdy rejects the supermom tag. "My success depends on my family's support and love," she says. Mothers are not alone in doing double duty. Staff Writer Philip Elmer-DeWitt regularly cooks breakfast for his two-year-old daughter Elizabeth, while Wife Mary gets some extra shut-eye. "It's my favorite part of the day," he says. "I get more time with Lizzie than most fathers do with their daughters."

Still, no one has it easy. For Associate Editor Claudia Wallis, who wrote the main story, long days apart from her ten-month-old son Nathaniel are hard. "There's an enormous tug at your heart come the end of the day," she says, "because there's this little person you want to see, and who wants to see you." One plus about a tug at the heart: it beats a crack of the whip as an incentive to get the job done and get home.