‘This Is Too Much’: Working Moms Are Reaching The Breaking Point During The Pandemic

The obstacles and hardships facing working mothers are not new, but the pandemic has given them more visibility.

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Youli Lee is proud of the years she worked for the U.S. government, prosecuting cybercrime in some of the world’s darkest places. These days, she’s the one looking for places to hide out.

“I just actually locked my door so that nobody could come here,” she says, from her bedroom. “I literally will have somebody wandering in every 15 minutes saying, ‘I’m on a break!’ ”

Lee’s children, ages 8, 11 and 13, are all home this fall, learning virtually as the pandemic has closed schools across the nation. Nearly half of all school districts in the U.S. started the school year with remote learning, including her district in Fairfax County, Va.