LOS ANGELES — As many as a quarter of women are considering leaving or scaling back their jobs due to pressure related to childcare, according to a McKinsey study.

Affordable options in Los Angeles are disappearing. The Good Samaritan Hospital Child Care Center will close on Aug. 20. The owners said they are losing money due to low enrollment.

What You Need To Know

  • Securing childcare is a huge emotional and financial burden for families

  • The Good Samaritan Hospital Child Care Center will close on Aug. 20

  • Rosalyn Escobar's daughter attended the center for years, and finding an alternative has turned into another full-time job

  • Escobar took time off work to look for daycare and had to have several difficult conversations with her boss

When parents found out, it threw many families into a tailspin.

Rosalyn Escobar said she is spending more and more time watching her daughter Paloma and worrying about the future. She's dealing with the unpleasant reality of filling out daycare applications.

"It's amazing — the amount of paperwork," Escobar said.

When her longtime childcare center closed suddenly, it felt like Escobar had to take on another full-time job in finding an alternative, she said. With help from Paloma's father and her partner, Jeremy Loudenback, she took time off work to make calls and go on tours, only to end up on several waitlists.

There were points when home life bled into work life.

"I did have several intense conversations where I had to let my boss know, 'I don't know if I'm going to be able to have a full three hours to focus on something,'" Escobar said.

Dr. Mona Zanhour studies work-life balance at California State University, Long Beach. Zanhour has found the emotional and financial burden of securing childcare is so intense that parents — especially women — are leaving the workforce in numbers large enough to call it a "she-cession."

"The whole system of managing work and family responsibilities was really hanging on a thread, and this is why when something like a childcare center closes, this is a huge disruption for families," Zanhour said.

There were moments Escobar thought about stepping away from her job.

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"I can definitely see how a mom would say, 'Well, screw it. If I'm not going to do either of these things well, I'm going to just focus on my child," Escobar said.

However, the loss of a steady income stream would negatively impact the dream of homeownership.

Hope is not lost, though. Thanks to a friend's tip, Escobar has a promising lead that could ultimately recalibrate the delicate balance between her professional and personal life.