My kids were both in day care and I was working…so I really wouldn’t have been able to use that to be excused.
I just wish the court had been more efficient with the trial…which took a whole lot longer due to their scheduling issues.
D was a toddler when I first served on Jury duty ( we lived in Maryland). I was working full time and had daycare.
I was called 6 or 7 years later, when we lived in Virginia and I was not in the paid workforce. But S was 2 or 3 years old so I was excused as a primary caregiver.
I think all states should excuse primary caregivers.
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You’d be surprised how hard the court works to keep the trial moving. We came in early and stayed late to get trial issues resolved. Sometimes expert witnesses (a doctor or nurse or other professional) have a change in schedule and some witnesses have to be taken out of order. We had to discuss jury instructions and other motions during the trial.
IMO the court works harder during jury trials. And we still had our other duties to do during trial weeks - divorces, subpoena, issuing opinions in other cases. If you watch Court TV, they show a lot of the motions when the jury is out of the courtroom and how much time it takes. Sometimes the judges will send the jury home early or skip a day to handle motions. During the Karen Read case (ran over boyfriend cop) it went on forever. One day they had to cancel court so the lead attorney could attend his daughter’s hs graduation.
I was excused twice when my kids were small, but I think that I had to specify that I was breastfeeding. In retrospect, that seems discriminatory. (Perhaps it’s changed now.)
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I do see it a little differently if your kids are in daycare and you’re working, vs if you’re a stay at home nursing mom, for example.
But agree it would be nice to get exempted if you have kids up to age they can start school, for example.
ETA not meant for @thumper1 specifically
In Illinois, when my kids were young, I just called and said I have young kids and no childcare. No issue getting excused.
I don’t know how other states function, but there seems to be no consequence in Illinois to not showing up if summoned, even if one isn’t ‘excused’. One of my friends, his wife, and three adult kids have never once done anything when they received a summons…didn’t call to say they couldn’t come, didn’t call to see if they should report the next day, didn’t report the day they were required to.
Nothing has happened…no follow up warning, no consequence whatsoever. I don’t know how many times over the years they’ve been called, but my friend is 65…so, maybe 10 times, just for him?
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When my husband served there were people excused for things like work commitments but a SAHM was told to find childcare so she could serve. I have no idea how one would find childcare with no notice.
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Wow! For me that would not have been possible as a SAHM. My family and inlaws were 800 miles away. Childcare doesn’t just appear out of thin air. It makes me mad that there are places where no one considers that.
And not just care for small children. People care for elderly and disabled people too.
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In Denver County,there is child care at the courthouse for jurors, witnesses, etc. I think only people with kids under a year can be excused. My friend was not excused and her kids were about 7 and 9? She also ‘took care of’ her mother who was in her 80s, but her mother could still drive. She did take care of her mother like taking her shopping and to doctors appts, but she wasn’t with her 24/7. In fact, her mother could have gotten the kids from school and kept them until friend got home, but friend was just looking for excuses.
She was not selected for a jury.
In NJ there is an exemption if you are the caregiver for young kids so I was excused a few times. One time I had to sit in the jury room all day for voir dire but they seated the final juror before I was questioned. It was a malpractice suit. Once you serve you are excused for three years. I recently got a summons but my group was not called. The age exemption is 75.
I would be glad to serve and agree that it is important. But with a trip planned, glad that @jym626 got the age exemption!
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I believe in fulfilling civic duty (unless a genuine reason a person is unable to). And I think it would be really interesting as well.
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I considered asking for a postponement, but with the amount of travel we do, it could have been a problem yet again. So, I chose to take the option to be excused due to my (especially now today!) advancing age 
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Happy another 39th birthday 
@jym626 ! 
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I’m an outlier. I’d love to serve on a jury, and would cancel travel plans for the opportunity.
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My husband served once. It was a negligence case… he was very excited! The judge thankfully was very efficient because everyone wanted to see the solar eclipse!
I get summons periodically but have yet to be selected. Little kid also gets summons once a year… even for the municipal court in the city she no longer lives in! She called the court telling them she is not a resident, and the clerk told her not to worry about the summons…small city, nothing ever happens in that court, apparently. 
Thank you!
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I do my civic duty in other ways through assisting with election recount, ballot, duplication, ballot certification, etc. etc. I’ve even done it during Covid having to wear the big heavy duty mask.
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I,too, would love to be picked. I’d really like to be on a federal grand jury and ‘work’ for months. The federal courthouse is gorgeous, air conditioned, and has a ton of rules about conduct while in the courthouse (no gum, no cell phones, no hats). It would be like going to a resort a few times a month.
When I moved into a house in California, one of the first pieces of mail I received was a federal summons for the man who had lived there before me. It was for federal court in LA, and we lived in San Clemente, at least 2 hours away at most times of the day. He had died, and was about 90 when he did. No way he could have done that duty, but I would have loved it. (I was a federal employee so would have been paid my regular salary plus travel expenses)
I’ve served as a juror on two different civil cases, and each lasted between two and three weeks. At that time, because I was a state worker allowed to use civil leave for the absence, I had to turn over to the state the $10 per day given to jurors. Even before Covid, that didn’t buy lunch downtown!
My most noteworthy story was responding to a jury summons for our small municipal court. About twenty of us were crowded in a room, waiting. An intercom system was on, and we could hear the attorneys talking with the judge in the courtroom. I went out to the reception desk and told the staff that we could hear that conversation. We were all immediately sent home!
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The problem is you could cancel your plans and not have to show up for jury duty or show up and not be selected for the jury. I would postpone my service if I had a trip booked for those reasons.
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