Before I’m anything, I’m Matthew, Miles and David’s mom. I’m a widow and I’ve been a single Mom. I’ve worked doubles. I’ve done the math at the grocery store checkout, putting things back because I just couldn’t make the numbers work that week. I’ve sat up at night staring at bills, playing “they can’t shut my lights off in the winter” game. When I say I know what it’s like to go through tough economic times with kids, believe me, I know ball. So when the President of the United States stood in front of the nation last night and called this a “roaring economy,” I didn’t need a fact-checker. I needed a laugh track.
Here’s the thing about parents: we have a built-in BS detector. It gets installed somewhere between the first diaper blowout and the fifteenth “I didn’t hear you” when yelling upstairs trying to get your kid’s attention. And right now, that detector is going off like a fire alarm.
At the National Parents Union, we don’t deal in spin. We go directly to the source. We ask parents. And what they told us in our February 2026 national survey, conducted by Echelon Insights, paints a picture that looks nothing like the fantasy we heard last night.
Fifty percent of parents said the economy should be the single most important issue for the President and Congress to tackle this year. Not immigration. Not foreign policy. The economy. Groceries. Rent. The stuff that keeps families together or tears them apart. And yet, 52% of parents disapprove of how Trump is handling it.
Let me say that again for the people in the back: a clear majority of the parents in this country, the people doing the actual work of raising the next generation, think this administration is botching the economy.
Only 30% of parents say their personal economic situation is improving. Meanwhile, 39% say things are getting worse. Not staying the same. Getting worse. And another 30% are just treading water, trying not to go under. When we asked parents what single economic change would help families the most, the answer was overwhelming: 28% said make everyday purchases like groceries more affordable. Another 17% said housing. Eleven percent said health care. These aren’t luxury asks. These are the fundamentals. Food. Shelter. A doctor when your kid is sick.
But here’s where the President’s speech went from tone-deaf to dangerous.
Trump wants to talk about making things safer for American families – so let’s talk about safety. Seventy-five percent of parents told us they are concerned that increased ICE operations could disrupt their children’s education. That’s three out of four parents. Not just immigrant families. Not just Democrats. Three out of four parents across this country.
And when we asked about specific enforcement scenarios? The numbers are staggering. 70% of parents oppose ICE detaining parents at school drop-off or pick-up. 70% oppose operations at school bus stops. 72% oppose ICE operations in school zones entirely. And 78%, nearly 8 in 10 parents, oppose stopping kids on their way to school and demanding proof of citizenship. These aren’t just poll numbers. This is what bipartisan consensus looks like. Parents, regardless of party, are saying the same thing: leave our children out of this.
When 45% of parents say ICE operations are making their communities less safe, not more, we have a problem that no amount of podium-pounding about “law and order” can fix. And for the parents who support a path to citizenship for people who were brought here as children? That’s 79%. For continuing to allow undocumented kids to attend public school, as the law requires? 66% support. Parents understand something this administration keeps missing: children are children. Period.
The President talked for two hours last night. Two hours. That’s past bedtime for most families. And after all of it, what did we get? More of the same. More gaslighting about an economy that isn’t working for us. More division dressed up as strength. More posturing while families fall further behind. No real answers. No real solutions.
Thirteen percent of the parents we surveyed make less than $30,000 a year. Another 12% make between $30,000 and $50,000. These families aren’t watching the stock market ticker. They’re watching the price of ground beef. And at the same time, only 26% of parents are very confident their children will grow up with the same constitutional rights and freedoms as their generation. Think about that. Only a quarter of American parents feel confident about the future of their children’s basic rights. That’s not a roaring anything. That’s a crisis of faith in the American project.
Parents aren’t asking for much. We’re asking for the basics. We want groceries we can afford. We want to take our kids to the doctor without going into debt. We want housing that doesn’t eat 60% of our paycheck. We want our kids to walk to school without being afraid. What we got instead was a State of the Union address that sounded like it was written for people living in la-la land.
This isn’t a red issue or a blue issue. Our polling shows a nearly even three-way split among the parents we surveyed: 34% Republican, 33% Democrat, 29% Independent. And the largest ideological group? 40% identify as moderate. These parents aren’t living on the fringes of the political spectrum. They’re in the messy, exhausting middle – where most of us are – trying to do right by our kids.
Parents don’t need performative speeches. We don’t need culture wars fought on the backs of our children. We don’t need an administration that mistakes a stock index for a grocery index. We need leaders who understand that the real state of the union is measured at kitchen tables, not at Mar-a-lago. It’s measured in whether a mom can buy her kid new shoes this month or those toes will have to squeeze for a few more weeks. In whether a dad can take off work when his kid is sick – and can actually afford a doctor’s visit. In whether a family can sleep at night without worrying that tomorrow might be the day everything falls apart.
Mr. President, parents are watching. We’ve got the receipts, and they don’t match your speech. It’s time to stop telling us what a great economy this is and start building one that actually works for families.
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ABOUT THE NATIONAL PARENTS UNION
With more than 1,800 affiliated parent organizations in all 50 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, the National Parents Union is the united, independent voice of modern American families. We channel the power of parents into powerful policies that improve the lives of children, families and communities across the United States. https://nationalparentsunion.org/