The surgeon general has a new public health warning. And this time, the hazard isn’t tobacco or alcohol: it’s parenting. 

Two-fifths of parents say that on most days, “they are so stressed they cannot function,” the Office of the Surgeon General reports in an advisory titled Parents Under Pressure. Roughly half of parents term that stress “completely overwhelming.” 

“It’s the warning that we all needed,” said Gretchen Salyer, founder and CEO of June Care, a company that connects parents with other families for child care.  

June Care is a childcare app that connects families who need child care with moms in their neighborhood who can care for their kids.

It stands for Joining Up Neighbors Everywhere.

The app launched three years ago in California, and is now available in Salt Lake City.

77 percent of Utah residents live in a child care desert, which means there are more than three times as many children as licensed care slots.

June Care is working to solve that. The app allows families to schedule and book child care in minutes.

Nationwide, there is an affordable child care crisis. In Texas, nearly 95,000 kids are on a waitlist because child care subsidy programs lack funding, causing child care deserts to spread across the state. Gretchen Salyer founded June Care during the pandemic to match working parents with stay-at-home moms who can care for their kids, to solve for this growing shortage.

Finding affordable and high-quality childcare can be scarce in Texas, and across the U.S. According to childrenatrisk.org, there are 333 childcare zip codes labeled “childcare deserts” in Texas. A childcare desert happens when there are more than three children for every one seat of childcare available in an area. A mom-founded, and mom-lead company is hoping to provide a solution to that.

A recent study finds that child care costs are now outpacing inflation, with the typical American family barely affording both a house and child care in most of the country’s largest cities. Affordability guidelines suggest housing should cost no more than 30% of a family’s monthly income, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends child care should cost no more than 7% of their monthly income.

With 2x more women leaving the workforce in 2023 than 2022, we need more affordable childcare solutions + flexible work opportunities for women, as the antiquated 9 to 5 has never really worked for parents. June Care Founder, Gretchen Salyer, explains how June Care is bringing affordable, available and flexible child care solutions to California.

At the end of last month, $24 billion in federal funding that had kept hundreds of thousands of child-care centers open during the pandemic ran out. The Century Foundation, a think tank, estimates that 70,000 centers will close as a result, leaving 3.2 million kids without slots. Finding a backup if plan A falls through won’t be easy… but June Care is offering a solution to this childcare shortage.

June Care, a platform that connects families for childcare, has come to the Tulsa area. June Care connects families who need childcare with stay-at-home parents who can care for their kids. June Care was launched in California where it grew to serve about 30,000 families. The service is a new approach to childcare trying to help with the childcare crisis, which she said more than half of Americans face where they don't have access to the childcare they need.

June Care is a new service that has launched in Tulsa that connects stay-at-home parents, to other parents needing child care. The point of the service is for host moms to make a little extra money doing something they are already doing, watching children, while also alleviating some of the daycare shortages.

Entrepreneurs like Gretchen Salyer of June Care are addressing the U.S. child care crunch that impacts more than 50% of American families by connecting those in need of child care with stay-at-home parents who can care for their kids. June Care is bridging technology and community to provide families everywhere with access to reliable childcare and income opportunities.

Dr. Kim talks to Gretchen Salyer, Founder & CEO of The June Care Company, a platform that connects parents who need childcare with qualified host parents who can care for their kids. Prior to founding June Care, Gretchen was a stay-at-home mom to her three daughters and, prior to that, a tech executive at Intuit for more than a decade before becoming an entrepreneur.

Meet Gretchen Salyer, Founder and CEO of June Care, and learn more about the thought process behind starting a business, the vision and values of June Care and how parents can sign up and earn income for the care work they are already doing.

June Care’s entire business model is centered on valuing and paying moms for the care work we do, and in the process, creating a private sector solution to our childcare crisis–one that leaves over 50% of American families living in a childcare desert. Founder, Gretchen Salyer, gives listeners a glimpse into her start-up-from-home mom path towards entrepreneurship.

In the spring of 2020, Gretchen Salyer suddenly found herself in a new role as homeschool teacher to her three daughters, after the pandemic shut down schools and day care centers — exacerbating a longstanding child care shortage in America.

This new start-up is offering a solution to the current childcare shortage and provides families with access to alternative childcare options. June Care is a flexible option for families who need childcare such as after-school or for occasional baby-sitting.

June Care connects parents looking for childcare with qualified stay-at-home parents who can care for their kids. The company really started as an experiment (in June 2021) to see if there was enough demand for this approach…

The global pandemic took a big toll on parents. Quarantines put play dates on hold and limited child care options for many. June Care launched in August 2021 to create a support network for parents in need and hosts who could help.

Millions of people have quit their jobs since the COVID-19 pandemic began. In December of 2021: Employers reported some 10.9 million job openings in a survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, well above pre-pandemic averages.

Child care by families for families, June Care is a parent-to-parent child care service in Orange County.

We had the good fortune of connecting with Gretchen Salyer and we’ve shared our conversation below.