I thought about that photo this week as the World Health Organization declared the emergency phase of the COVID-19 pandemic over. I think often about parents who had to work at factories, hospitals and stores. U.S. researchers last year found that the pandemic parenting burden was heavier on women, who performed, on average, two hours more of supervisory parenting tasks each day than men. Child-care centres and schools remain sensitive to symptoms of illness, a trend that is understandable in theory, but extremely challenging in practice for parents. For some parents, the idea of working from home with children again, even for a day, is unbearable.