That type of thing is generally acute, not chronic. If someone needs to duck out of work on short notice for the rest of the day to help a spouse in crisis, that absolutely should be generally permitted, and I think most tech employers would be ok with that.
If this crisis required the employee to take several weeks off, it would require scrambling and maybe require some unpaid leave, but it would get done.
But that has nothing to do with what's going on now. We have a chronic situation where parents need to take care of their kids all day, every day, for every week and month that this pandemic shuts down schools and other child care services. You can't address this with an afternoon off or temporary leave of absence. This requires a complete change in expectations. You can't pause child care for 8 hours while mom and dad work. You can't even pause it for 30 minutes.
If this crisis required the employee to take several weeks off, it would require scrambling and maybe require some unpaid leave, but it would get done.
But that has nothing to do with what's going on now. We have a chronic situation where parents need to take care of their kids all day, every day, for every week and month that this pandemic shuts down schools and other child care services. You can't address this with an afternoon off or temporary leave of absence. This requires a complete change in expectations. You can't pause child care for 8 hours while mom and dad work. You can't even pause it for 30 minutes.