Sunday, May 9, 2021 | 2 a.m.
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I became a mom two years ago when I was 20 years old. And even though there have been struggles, it was the best thing to happen to me.
Mother’s Day has always been special for me, and celebrating my own mother was always something I loved to do. As I grew up, I started to realize how much she did for us and that a single day wasn’t enough to celebrate her.
When I became a mother, I was in for another surprise about what it meant to raise my daughter. As with any mother, I just want my daughter to have the best opportunities available.
In the short time that I have been a mother, I have experienced a lot of issues that parents face. Often we’re taught how to make a bottle or change a diaper, but we are told nothing about the amount of money we’ll have to pay for having a child, especially regarding medical care. None of my parenting classes taught me about how to enroll in Medicaid; I had to do the research on my own.
Additionally, as a new mom, I had no idea how expensive formula was, and how fast a baby would go through that formula.
I’d never heard about the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children program (better known as WIC), and didn’t know how to apply, but I can personally testify that it’s been a lifesaver.
With the Biden administration providing funding for Medicaid, it will help mothers who might otherwise not be able to afford the big bill that comes with having a child. Further still, with the administration investing $3 billion in the WIC program, it will help countless families that struggle with buying food for their babies.
The American Rescue Plan will help parents who have been struggling to find child care during the pandemic. It was hard enough for me to find child care for my daughter before COVID-19, but when the pandemic hit, it made everything so much harder. It was scary to even think about sending my daughter anywhere because I did not want her to get sick. At the same time, going back to work was hard because I didn’t know if I would get sick myself and bring it home.
President Joe Biden’s plan to increase funding by $15 billion is huge because it will ease the hardship that many mothers have had to face during this pandemic.
I know there are plenty of other moms who have been dealing with extreme hardships during these tough times, and while it is a blessing to be able to spend another Mother’s Day with my daughter, it is great to know that there will finally be more praise for mothers on a daily basis, not just one day.
Nathaly Martinez lives in the Northern Nevada community of Jackpot.
