This one idea provides many solutions.
Just like we don’t question the idea of profiting from owning a house, we grumble about, but don’t question, the absurdity of paying almost as much for childcare as you earn from going to work. It is perhaps a remnant of patriarchy, punishing (typically) a woman for choosing not to be a full-time Mum. Yet the desire to work is so strong in many women that they do so, and are apart from their children, for low financial gain. Regardless of your opinion on how parenting should look, we know that many women want to be a mother and also work. That alone is a strong argument against the idea that the UBI will lead to laziness.
Free child care is UBI by stealth, given without question to parents who choose to work when they have pre-school children (it should also be extended to after school care for older kids). And it isn’t so radical, many advanced economies already give benefits and tax credits to those who have children – this is just the next natural step.
When the cost of child care is removed from the equation, parents can make genuine decisions around whether they should work, or not. Instead of the absurd situation of literally paying a fee for the privilege to work, like the cost of commuting on steroids. Nobody would take a job when 75% of your pay is spent on the commute, and yet working parents do exactly that with child care. Like the UBI, free child care enables us to have more freedom and choice.
When the concept is being debated, we can bring up the value provided by carers, and argue that the role they play in society is worthy of higher pay. Child care is predominantly a female profession, is seen by some men as being an easy and unskilled role, and is a key aspect of why women are paid less than men in aggregate.
Free child care would be a boost to the economy. The recipients are not the parents, but the child care industry, providing jobs and growth. The parents get to work more, which is also a boost. And, if we want to delay population decline, it will certainly lead to more babies, perhaps more than any other incentives that have been tried.