Childcare is expensive!
Working parents have many options to balance cost, time to work and time with their children including daycare, nannies, offset shifts, au-pairs, or relying on family. With the competing pressures, it makes sense to take a step back and explore your options to understand what you really want.
Complex problems are often vague and have many possible solutions. The Meta-Problem Method may lead you far away from the dilemma that started your quest. That’s because the method forces you to clarify what you really want and what you are willing to give up. It enables you to compare objectively the possible pathways and their trade offs. It prevents you locking into solutions mode too early and then doubling down on solving a low-yield problem that does not serve your goals as well as the alternatives. At the end of this process, you will have a better understanding of your priorities and how to achieve them.
Steps in the Meta-Problem Method
Dilemma
The high-level issue you are trying to address
Plan the right childcare for our family’s needs
Goal
The changes you want to make to address the dilemma. There are usually many options.
Supporting goals
- Enough time to do paid work.
- Maximize time spent as a family.
Other goals could include minimizing the cost of childcare, minimizing miles driven, maximizing the quality of the childcare chosen and reduced stress associated with childcare.
Problem Space
The set of problems you could chose to solve to advance your goals, plus the constraints that hold you back.
Example problems
- How can parents have enough time to do paid work? Maybe the problem to solve is “Which childcare support do we need to do our jobs well?”
- How can we maximize time spent as a family? Maybe the problem to solve is “Which childcare options give us the most time together?”
There are many other potential problems to solve related to finding childcare for your family. Each goal has many possible problems we could link to it. Are there other problems linked to these first two goals? Which options come to mind for the other goals?
High-Yield Problems
Sometimes solving one problem helps make progress towards several goals. In this step, we identify these “two-for-the-price-of-one” problems.
Which options will advance more than one goal?
- Picking a childcare center provides flexibility to do paid work and there are many high-quality options available if you live in the right area. However, there may be additional driving time and higher costs (especially for multiple children).
- Selecting the right at-home or family-based childcare option will lead to more time spent as a family and may reduce the costs of childcare. However, this strategy may make it more challenging to have enough time to do paid work and may involve additional planning.
There are many potential solutions that will have varying effects on the set of goals. Which alternatives improve the most important goals? How might the unknown change the right path forward? What other possible solutions are there to address the dilemma?
Problem Selection
Which of the many possible options in the high-yield problem step is the best set to address the dilemma?
- Which solutions make the most sense as a parent?
- Which solutions will best address the dilemma?
- Which solutions will deliver the best outcome for the least amount of time, effort and money?
Implement, Learn and Adapt
Check continuously that you are still solving the best problem, as new information emerges.
Observe and learn as you go. As new information reveals itself, check continuously that you’re still solving the right problem.