Choice for Childcare Day (en francais)

Choice for Childcare Day

As a single male I have to admit that there is a lot about this issue that I don't understand. Not having kids means for me the issue often flies under the radar. In an effort to better understand the issue I fired up Google and did some surfing. I came across the Kids First Canada site a while back and have been meaning to blog about it for a while now, so today seems fitting.

Daycare Fact & Fiction, Ideology & Agendas
This in-depth report was compiled by H. Ward, President of Kids First Parent Association of Canada. The latest December 19, 2005 update is available as a pdf document.

This is an excellent report compiled by Kid First President Helen Ward. I was quite surprised by some of the Fact/Fiction items I read in the report. The report certainly highlights the fact that advocates of a state run system have been far more effective in getting their message out.

Heres one example from the report:

IV - Fiction: “UNREGULATED” CARE IS LOW QUALITY
Fact: there are no studies showing poor quality of child care done by those who are not regulated by government: parents, families, nannies, babysitters or friends. All child care is parent regulated.

1 - Government brochures handed out in the maternity wards in BC indicate this: “Although some types of child care are licensed by the Provincial Child Care Facilities Licensing Board, you as the parent must make the final decision as to whether a child care arrangement is a good one.” [emphasis in original]
-Parents’ Guide to Selecting Child Care: Selecting and Monitoring of Licensed Child Care p.1

2 - Daycare advocates using scare tactics erroneously claim that parents are using “illegal” care simply because it does not include regulation by government. The terms “illegal,” “informal,” “supplemental,” and “unregulated” care can refer to care by: mothers while doing paid work, fathers, grandparents, nannies, siblings.
–Statistics Canada National Child Care Study: Where are the children?
- The Benefits and Costs of Good Child Care Cleveland & Krashinski http://www.childcarecanada.org/pubs/other/benefits/bc.pdf p.85

3 - In BC, “illegal daycare” is done by grandparents or anyone looking after more than 2 children other than their own without a license, paid or unpaid, because they are in violation of regulations.

Take a few minutes today, download and read the report.

Comment, blog and email on this topic today to help raise awareness.