In this Viewpoint, we engage with the everyday politics of academia – specifically, how caring for young children continues to affect academic work and career trajectories in ways that could be better mitigated. This viewpoint piece collates the personal accounts of six development scholars who discuss their experiences of negotiating both academia and childcare, covering fieldwork, funding, career trajectories, sharing parental responsibilities and challenges for family life. Though charting different experiences, all these contributions argue for better recognition of both the gains and persistent inequalities in how care responsibilities impact academic work and careers, and the need to better mitigate these with concrete changes to policy and practice.