Tell us why Canada needs child care!
Children and families in Canada have a right to access quality, affordable child care services. Yet, only 20% of young children today have access to a regulated space and, in many regions, child care fees are the second highest expense for young families.
Early childhood educators (ECE’s) also have a right to be socially valued and properly paid for their work, yet ECE professionals earn about half as much, on average, as other college-trained workers. From grandparents to economists, working parents to student parents, health care professionals to social workers, early childhood educators to university professors - and so many others - everyone has a child care story.
Now is the time to add your voice to the chorus of people across Canada who say
"We Need Child Care".
Please note that the comments on this website are provided by the public and therefore do not necessarily refect the policies and positions of the CCAAC.
When telling your story, please include your perspective (mother, grandfather, student, etc) city and province.
Comments
I am a mother of 2.5 year
I am a mother of 2.5 year old, I am a high school teacher (working part-time) I am a Masters student at Ryerson University.
I have signed up for daycare when my son was 3 months old, at that point we were living downtown Toronto. I have signed up for subsidy around that time too. Out of around 10 daycares that I got on a waiting list for, only one got a spot within a year and it happened when I was out of the country visiting relatives. It also happened to be the daycare I have not got a chance to visit yet and that was quite far from us (and not on a bus/subway root). So we let the space go as they could not wait even two weeks.
I kept calling daycares every so often, my subsidy turn has come few times until we have eventually moved from downtown to just the border of city of Toronto, I have got on a waiting list of the local daycares. I admit I did not want to send my child to daycares that had very bad city rating.
There was nothing, the subsidy money came and went away again, because there was nowhere to go. Then when I was in process of looking for nanny when a downtown daycare that I have signed up for over 2 years ago got a spot.
So this is where we're now - I am taking my child to downtown childcare center to which I have got on a list over 2 years ago. It takes two buses and subway ride to get there, which is not very healthy (or easy) in a rush hour.
Daycare costs nearly 1200 a month - just under what I get as a part-time high school teacher.
It is heartbreaking to work just for childcare fee and ttc pass. Thank God I have a partner and his salary to pay the other bills. What do single parents do?????
Why cannot our government solve the demographic problem by helping people to have children instead of bringing new immigrants in? (it costs our society directly or indirectly to assimilate newcomers and help to get going, so why not better spend money on child care instead?)
Getting the run around
So over the past few months I have gone to a meeting with the MPP of my area in Mississauga which was a horrible expereince as the MPP had no answers for me, she tried to feed me information I never asked for and danced around my most important question..'what is being done to get Peel the funding we need to help our children" subsidized daycare and with children with disablities. Still after talking to multiple people within the City of Peel, counsellors, directors, assisstants, managers, and supervisors still I can't get an answer. Its very discouraging and upsetting especially when I see now that I am a working single mother and my son is now 1 years old I see that he needs more stimulation that unfortunately I cannot provide for him.
Parents we need to start asking questions and not stopping until we get answers. I have a friend who is now working overnight because she and her husband cannot afford childcare, her husband works 2 jobs and now she will work over night so she can care for her children during the day one in school and one not school age yet. I told her that is crazy because in the long run who kids will pay for how exhuasted she will be doing this, but she feels she has no other choice.Parents we do have a choice we need to fight back... and make the governments start putting childs towrads the top of their agendas instead of right at the bottom.
Start with your MP than your MPP than call your city and if it takes than your mayor. At some point someone has to start listening.
I am a 23 years old student,
I am a 23 years old student, not married yet and i believe canada needs a better child care system. i will do my best to achieve this goal so that few years from now i can raise my children in a better situation and withought any stress by being a happy mom. i also belive that when society helps women and provide them with the better working condition, the socierty itself will get benefit. when families are happy, the society as a whole will be happy too.
I completely agree
I just keep asking myself if child care is a right, why am I being faught to provide him with that. What me and my son are dealing with has been so very stressful and even more so because prior to becoming a parent I was just learning how to deal and manage my depression. This situation I am in now is really testing me. I really wish the people in power could see what you and I and so many others in the public already know. A happy family is a happy society.
Investing In Early Learning Program
I am a 25-year-old mother to be (One week till my due date) and a second year Early Childhood Educator (ECE) student in my home community. I feel so deeply passionate about children and early years education and my interests has only intensified with the upcoming birth of my son. Through the ECE program, I’ve come to understand the importance of life long, permanent brain development, which takes place in the first five years of life. The work of Dr. Fraser Mustard (as well as many others) has empirically shown the enormous benefits comprehensive early child care has over adult outcomes in areas such as criminal behaviour, higher results in language and skill development, and anti-social behaviour. That being said, a quote which stood out for me from Fraser Mustard is, “Make the investment now to improve the quality of the future generations that are coming along. If you have an aging population, you surely want to invest in early child development, to have the kind of people in the next generation that can sustain your economy.” I could not agree with this more, however, I think it is hard for society to understand this because the economic benefits are not present right away. In addition early learning programs could provide much earlier intervention (and therefore better statistical outcomes) in cases of other disorders such as Autism; an effort to make early intervention on disorders of children could mean a decrease in social costs later on (i.e. violent crime). The Liberal government of Ontario (my home province) has recently put a great deal of financial emphasis on education, pledging to lower post secondary debt and build new schools. I believe this is an encouraging first step (even some provincial school boards have begun hiring ECE's as co-teachers in Kindergarten classrooms), unfortunately, in spite of a huge amount of empirical data, our early years education in Canada lags behind. I hope to help work against this over the course of my career.
I would like to add that the statistical information/quote I used was referenced from,
Jamieson, J., Bertrand, J., & Ibrahim, E. (Eds.). (2008). The science of early child development (2nd ed.). [Online resource]. Winnipeg, MB: Red River College.
Retrieved from http://www.scienceofecd.com
Postdoc, infant childcare
I moved to Vancouver with my husband from india when he got a job here a little over a year ago. I was confident that I could find a postdoc at UBC, and about 4mo after my daughter was born, a perfect opportunity came along. I accepted a half-time postdoc that allows me to take my daughter with me often; however, I will have to do labwork soon, and she cannot be in the lab with me. I started looking for childcare a few months ago, but all the licensed places have waiting lists of a year or more. I can't afford a nanny, as I would be paying them more than I make myself. So I looked to unlicenced situations. The first I tried had one lady who said she takes care of up to seven children. If I put my daughter with her, three children would be under 16mo. In my view, she would not be able to give my baby the attention she needs. So I lost my deposit when I saw she was unable to adequately care for my daughter. I tried another woman who seemed ideal, as she only takes care of two children; however, I found out later she has some strange clauses in her contract, and she refuses to negotiate, so I've had to back out of that as well, and I may lose another deposit. This is ridiculous. Why is there not a system in place to regulate enough providers? There are many people operating in this area who are not licenced, and so many people are desperate for childcare that unlicenced childcare providers have no problem staying in business, because there are no other alternatives. If BC wants to be competitive in the marketplace, affordable and safe childcare should be available for people who need it.
BC Child Care
I hope you'll consider joining us at The Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC to implement a solution to the current child care crisis.
info@cccabc.bc.ca
Child Care
I am a single mother who is currently training to become an Early Childhood Educator. I find it very upsetting to know that child care within Canada varies so much, We hear so many stories of centers losing children, of children not being properly fed and of parents not being able to work because the cost of child care is so outrageous, especially in comparison to how much ECE's actually make. Across Canada their should be regualations on the cost of care as well as the quality of the care that needs to be provided. All child care centers should be required to have full trained staff, they should have random inspections every so many months and the government should be providing funding for new centers to open so that all children have access to quality care. It is benefical not only to the children but to the parents and families as they no longer have to worry about the type of care their children are recieving. There is no reason that only 20% of children have access to regualted child care and a family should not have to decided wether to put their child in quality care or have proper meals for the month. Qualified people are willing to provide quality care for children if there are centers to accomodate them!
I got a spot at the daycare I wanted.Now lets see how we survive
I got an email about Monday stating that the daycare that about a month ago told me I wouldnt get a spot until January for my infant son had spots available. This daycare also on a previous occassion told me that I would not get subsidy because there was a freeze and no new famailiars were getting it. Any how I got an email I called Tuesday and I was asked to in for an interview Wednesday with a registration fee of apx. 60$ and two weeks worth of fees, just under about 700$. Only to find out that in order for my child to start daycare in about 3 weeks it would cost me around 1400$ and than about 600$ every two week. OMGosh this is what parents have been going through, this is madness. No wonder everyone is on medications to make it through the day. Why is my city, my province, my country not helping produce productive people for our future, a parent cannot do it alone. My mind is racing all over I don't understand so many things; like why ado people (females) who are on welfare get so much help to do nothing but sit on welfare, every friend I have on welfare has their children in daycare and majority of them aren't working or going to school. I've always had a job and i graduated from college in 2009 but still I cannot on my own afford 1400$ a month plus rent plus bills, plus food plus transportation even at the most basic levels to now that I am a mother is needed to raise my child. Why is it so hard for me to get help and the so many others out there like me. The working poor.
Now about my child, who needs the structure of daycare. I want my son to be able to adentify letters and numbers and colors at an early age and with everything a single parent and I would assume a co-parenting lifestyle brings its hard to stay as consistant as needed to do that without more help. I see the difference all the time in children who have gone to daycare and children who have not gone to daycare, and unfortunately in every case the child who has not gone to daycare is behind in what they know. I don't want this for my child. I want to be able to provide every thing desereved and to aid in being the best person possible. That is why I am now about to risk putting myself into a hole i just recently dung myself out of after completing a 5 year credit counselling program. How this makes sense I have no clue. Why my province doesnt want strong healthy smart children being raised to keep out home going I dont understand.
Hopefully for me and everyone else we will see changes soon and we will get help.
Hopefully Our Children Will Be Remembered
Signed, a desparate for change new mom.
Oct 6th 2011 find out where you need to be to vote.......
I start work in 30+ days
I am 28 years old, I had my first child November 2010. Unfortunately his father is not in his life and hasn't been from day one. Deciding to have my son at the age that I became pregnant was a difficult decsision I have always been pro-aborotion however something told me my son was suppose to be here, considering the circumstances around how I became pregnant. Now I did worry alot about how life would be once my maternity leave from work where I make apx 22k ..I worried about how life would be knowing I would be doing it on my own.
I never would have imagined there would have been so many road blocks and stresses standing in the way and not assisting me in being the best mother I can't believe how many issues I am having.
After having to deal with Revenue Canada telling me I have to prove to them that my sons father does not support him financially, which was very emotionally draining and stressing. I am now faced with dealing with the current situation in Peel (I dont know where else it effects) where there is no subsidy being giving out. According to the subsidy worker for Region of Peel they have not given out any subsidy approvals for all of 2011.
I ask her what am I suppose to do, what are the other options for someone like me (because I know I am not alone) she said you can go to a grocery store and look on the board sometimes they are cheaper. and visit your local food bank to help with financial struggles. and that's it.
I am so confused, sad, stressed, scared, and on edge.
What am I going to do when I start working next month, who is going to watch my son, where am I going to get the money to pay rent, child care, bills, food, all by myself. I don't understand why the region of Peel would stop something so detrimental to a childs development. My son needs to be in daycare, he needs to have that structure from now, I need that help to provide it for him.
well my son is in his crib crying now and since I am the only one here for him. I have to end my cry for help.
I hope some how someone will see all the needs we Canadians have all the help we need and make something change.
I need help and advice.