The home learning environment (HLE) plays a vital role in shaping children's early development, literacy skills, and long-term life outcomes. The COVID-19 pandemic, ongoing cost-of-living crisis, and reductions in funding for early years services may have created stress and emotional stress for families, limiting their capacity to support their children's early learning. To explore these issues, 17 parents across England were interviewed between January and February 2025 about shared parent-child engagement in early learning activities. Participants were recruited through early years programme contacts, ensuring representation from financially disadvantaged areas. A thematic analysis revealed several reasons why parents have struggled to engage in early learning and literacy activities with their children in recent years. The availability of physical, financial, mental, emotional and social resources for parents had a considerable influence on their ability to incorporate language-supporting activities into daily routines. The findings offer a snapshot of how families are navigating early literacy today and highlight the need for support that reflects the realities of daily family life and celebrates the resilience, adaptability, and care that parents bring to their children's early development. Recommendations are provided to empower parents with that support. [This report was created in partnership with KPMG.]