NCLM Southern City Volume 71, Issue 3, 2021

NCLM.ORG 15 Busy Life to Busier Life: Legislator Q&A But myself and Representative Clemmons… Out of 120 members in 2019, it was rare to actually have kids of small age. And I mentioned that because the other perspective that is lost is that if you have a lot of individuals who could not have done it financially. With regards to the circumstances that we currently have being in session forever, they don’t know how much childcare is, actively, right? So some basic issues that happen every single day that each one of us experiences at a different time in life, you don’t necessarily know. There were a lot of people who understand as retirees COLA and how expensive it is in order to make sure that we’re going to keep up with inflation and dealing with the cost of living adjustments, but then they don’t have any perspective on how much it costs for childcare. At one point in my life, I was paying $2,400 in childcare for my two kids to be in a top preschool. And, as a result, my husband and I weren’t putting nearly as much in retirement because we wanted to have our kids in a really great school where they could have the best chance at being successful. So I think that is an aspect of things. I also think that we are for- tunate to have different varying levels of education, right? People who have high school degrees, people who have PhDs, doctorate, et cetera. That’s really helpful. And so I think that we do have that diversity, but we don’t have it in the level of age. We don’t necessarily have it in the expertise with regards to just gender. Less than 24% of the General Assembly is women. And that comes into play. Usually disproportionately, women are of course taking care of their kids. And so trying to work and navi- gate that. It would be easier if we had a set schedule, right? Or a fixed schedule, like other states. It would be much easier for other people to actually participate in the process. Teachers who would want to actually be part of an education policy. We could have them teach if they knew that they could take a semester off and then teach in a certain area, or they knew that we were going to have these breaks. But the inconsistency, frankly, in the schedule and just the uncertainty of how long it’s even going to last—it makes it really difficult for people who are not wealthy or retired. And I think that that’s what we miss out on. We really need the opportunity for people of all areas to be able to participate. Why did you decide to run and what do you see your role as being in the legislature? SB : I was asked to run years ago, when my kids were one and three, and my response to the person was, “My kids are one and three.” And so that conversation was over. (Laughter) But as a family law attorney and a social worker, because I deal with people oftentimes in the worst time in their lives and trying to navigate through the legal quagmires and emotional issues of continues on page 16 I mean, it’s not as if most people who are working at a minimum wage job can go ahead and just say, I’m gonna quit and let’s go run for the legislature . But at least we should have individuals who have life experiences and also have experiences with other individuals in society that are feeling those challenges and to have that perspective.