When schools were closed in the first lockdown last year, Analise thought she could juggle home-schooling her son with her occupational psychologist job.

But as things dragged on, she became increasingly exhausted and eventually realised she had no choice but to quit.

Analise is one of many parents whose employer has refused them furlough to take care of their children.

More than 2,000 working mothers said that they had recently been refused furlough, according to the TUC union.

The Women's Budget Group (WBG) and the Fawcett Society, which canvassed just over 1,000 parents, found twice as many mothers (15%) reported having to take time off work with no pay due to school closures or a self-isolating/sick child compared with fathers (8%).

And when it comes to who is responsible for childcare, 58% of mothers said "mostly me" compared with 23% of fathers.

Analise, who has an eight year-old son, said she was starting work at 9pm and working through to the early hours, "just to try and juggle."

"It was completely overwhelming, my mental health suffered."

What she needed was to be put on furlough, she says. But her employer, a small business that was busy in the pandemic, thought it would be unfair to other staff who had to keep working- most of whom didn't have children.

First Analise used all of her annual leave for childcare, then combined taking unpaid leave with spreading her hours out across the week.

But it wasn't enough, and as her husband earned more than her, she had to be the one that quit to focus on the childcare. You can read interesting news here. : เกมสล็อต