"Mom Math": The Hidden Labor of Navigating Income, Benefits, and Work

• In Event: How are families navigating fragmented social support systems?

Abstract

For many working parents, financial stability requires constant, complex calculation. This accounting may be particularly salient for single mothers, particularly those who receive child support, an often-inconsistent income source, and benefits with income thresholds, such as child care subsidies. For these moms, a change in child support, work hours, or income might trigger cascading effects on child care subsidies, FoodShare, and other supports, which, in turn, requires mothers to make strategic decisions to keep families afloat. Though many mothers, including many who are working and earning above conventional low-income cut-offs, are navigating this loosely connected net of supports, the lack of connectedness between programs and the work of “making it all work” remains largely overlooked in policy conversations. In this study, we draw on in-depth interviews with Wisconsin mothers to understand “mom math.”  Our sample includes 25 mothers who were owed child support and were eligible for child care subsidies in 2024. Interviews explored mothers' experiences with regularity of child support receipt and its impact on other household finances, including benefit thresholds, household and child-related costs, and work and child care decisions. We analyzed data thematically using NVivo. 

Findings: Mothers in our sample were sophisticated and vigilant financial managers, tracking program thresholds with precision and structuring consequential decisions around them. Child support regularity was central to this calculus. Regular payments provided critical stability, while irregular payments (or regularly receiving no payments) impacted families’ financial lives through housing costs, credit card debt, and difficult choices about household necessities. In addition, some mothers described carefully managing work hours or earnings. For some, this meant declining additional hours or structuring work schedules to preserve child care subsidies or other benefits; for others, this meant calculating how and whether the combination of their employment and child support might allow them to forgo some child care (i.e. after school care) altogether. Across programs, mothers described a shared experience: small changes in one part of the equation—particularly child support— could destabilize carefully constructed financial arrangements. Many described feeling like they could never fully get ahead. 

Conclusions and Policy Implications: While calls for additional financial literacy for families who receive benefits remain a perennial policy interest, the labor and intricacy of “mom math” that we heard in our interviews suggests that, if the goal is to support working parents in making ends meet, alternative policy levers aimed at reducing cross-program impacts and increasing resources for single parents might be called for. Our findings highlight the fragmented policy environment in which these parents find themselves and the amount of work required to figure out how best to support their family in meeting their basic needs. Interviews also underscored the precarious role of child support income for many families, highlighting a policy opportunity for further considering the purpose of child support. In considering how best to support working mothers, policymakers should consider designing programs with enough connections that families can plan and build stability without doing impossible math.

Author

• Molly A Costanzo, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  Presenting Author