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Tasharro Harris works at a child-care center, where she is paid $8.10 an hour. She lives near Atlanta in a four-bedroom rental house with her husband, her four children, ages 7, 7, 10 and 20, and her adult niece. How I Do It is an occasional series dedicated to telling the stories of how parents get through the long days and the short years.

Yesterday morning I got up at 5:30. We only have one car; I have to drop my husband off. Then I got home about 10 after 6. Most days I wake the girls up and help them get ready, take the girls to school, then take my son to work, then drive to work myself. We’re literally on a timed schedule because I have to make sure everyone gets where they’re going. It has to work perfectly.

This week is a little easier because the girls are on spring break. I left them with my niece. She works the evening shift so she can stay with the girls during the day this week.

Most days I get off around 2:30 because I can’t afford after-school care for my daughters. It’s $120 a week at the center where I work. I get a discount, so it would be $180 a week total, and I would be able to work maybe an extra three hours a day at $8 an hour. It wouldn’t cover the cost. Yesterday I worked a little later, until 3:30. I pay my niece a little, plus she gets her rent.

There isn’t much for the girls to do on their break. I always make sure my niece does their sight words with them. She makes them read books, too. Then they probably played in the back yard or on their tablet computers for a while. That’s what they do after school most days. They’d like to play softball, but I can’t afford it. They can’t just sit around and do nothing, though. I want them to be doing some work. I’m hoping I can send them to college. When my son graduated, we couldn’t afford college.

My husband used to work in the oil fields in North Dakota. We had a lot more money then. If he was still out there everything would be fine, but when gas prices went down he got laid off. Now, he works at Home Depot for $10.50 an hour. If the girls are sick during the day, I take off if my niece or my son can’t stay with them. We really need his check, so we try not to let him get off work for anything.

When he got laid off everything changed dramatically. I got laid off from my last job about the same time. We got behind on our rent; we were on unemployment. … I was getting $127 a week, he was getting $300. Our rent is a thousand dollars a month, the car note is $75 a week and we had insurance, maintenance, on that — but we have to make sure we keep that car. We ended up four months behind, plus late charges. Our landlord is working with us, still, so we can pay it off.

Yesterday after I got off work I picked up my niece and the girls. We drove my niece to work, then my husband got off at 4:30. We picked him up and then we waited for my son to get off from Popeyes at 5. When we got home I cooked dinner for everybody — fried chicken and French fries.

Then we had a rough night. My oldest twin had a toothache, and we can’t get it treated. We gave her medicine, but it doesn’t help much. They say we make too much money for CHIP and Medicaid, but I don’t see how that’s possible. It makes me feel so bad as a parent because I can’t afford to do the things that need to be done.

I put the girls to bed — they’re all, “Momma, Momma, Momma,” all the time, and I’m like, “Your daddy is right there, can you not ask your daddy?” But they don’t. We went upstairs and I took a shower while they were taking a bath. We played and I read them a book. “Tom Sawyer.” I buy books at garage sales. It’s not a kiddie book. Some of the chapters are long, though. Sometimes I just read a few pages and I say, “Mommy’s tired.” I have to stay up, though, because I have to go get my niece from work at 11. I’m not usually at home and in bed until midnight.

Next week, Wednesday, I’m going to Atlanta for a rally for the Fight for $15. We’re calling for a raise to wages to $15 an hour. I’m going to speak. I told my girls it’s for mommy to make more money and other mommies to make more money and be able to take their family on vacation or at least to the dentist. I’m excited.

The people that take their kids to the center — there’s a novelist, an attorney, judges, a lot of people that are bringing their kids — I don’t know if they know how little we make. They’re paying good money for their kids to get good care and I think they should know how hard it is for us, how we can’t even afford the fee to get certified.

I want speak, and I want everyone to hear me. I was put here for something. I’m praying for a good day and lots of people listening.

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Read more about parents on minimum wage in “Terran Lyons, McDonald’s Crew Trainer, on Raising 2 on the Minimum Wage” and this article.