If you tip this one sideways, Frankenstein spins around...lots of fun for the kiddies!
Usually I'd talk on and on about stamping but not tonight...
There is definitely something seriously wrong with our child care system:
You need a license to drive but you don't need a license to watch 6 children under the age of 12 in your home.
You need a license to catch a fish but you don't need a license to care for up to 3 children under the age of 2 in your home + up to 3 more children under the age of 12.
You need a license to build a deck in your backyard but you don't need a license to do what you see as "fit" for other people's children in the privacy of your own home.
The police cannot intervene in a bad dayhome situation to close it down and child services cannot intervene in a bad dayhome situation unless they have exceeded the maximum number of children at one residence.
This definitely needs to be changed, although I have no idea how to do it?!? Where do I begin? What do I do?
7 comments:
Isn't it funny. I don't have a licence to care for the 7 kids in my house, but I suppose it's diffirent when it's your own. I could be a pot/crack head dead beat for all they care, but let me open up a day care and see what happens. Lesley, it does really suck and I hope that you find a way to get the ball rolling. By the way, this is Nat, I had to post anonymous cause i couldn't sign in for some silly reason.
Lesley, I posted my comment, then went back and re-read it, and now my first comment makes no sense at all.........Your saying that child care should require some sort of licence, right? Ok, I agree...heehee, but, it's diffirent here. If someone runs a day home in Ontario, they always have some form of formal training and it is regulated, but that's only the ones that are run like a business. Of course, there are normal babysitters that don't need anything. I think there should be some form of licence, even for crazy parents like me...........LOL
It's very true...you need a license for your dog but any fool can be a parent...same thing! We need good people in office...when do you want to run Les?
In Calgary you can have a private dayhome with absolutely no training/qualifications, that's absurd! There are agencies that you can join which will train you and monitor your dayhome but they are having a hard time finding operators because the child care demand is so high and they also get a percentage of the monthly fee and set your rates for you. One of my clients told me that her company has a daycare center in the building and the wait list is over 600 kids long. Unbelievable! Child care rates are huge as well,ranging from $550 to $1000 per child depending on where you live...I will have to do some research and figure out how I can try and help make a difference?!?
As a provincial government employee, I know that day-care facilities are covered under the Social Care Facilities Licensing Act, Seelink at (http://www.qp.gov.ab.ca/Documents/Acts/S10.cfm)Your best bet to be heard is to write to your local MLA, and copy the Minister responsible for that piece of legislation: Heather Forsyth. I believe this piece of legislation is under review. Maybe you should ask to be part of the review committee as an interested citizen.
Thanks for the link Lucie! Here it is in black and white everyone:
The operator of a private babysitting facility does not require a licence under subsection (1) as long as not more than 6 of the children for whom care is provided, including the operator’s children, if any, are under 12 years of age.
I have a feeling this will become an ongoing project for me, other members of the dayhome registry are also interested in trying to help? Do what, I'm not exactly sure yet, but something.
It's a shame that so many people need sitter's that they don't do the homework they should to make sure their kids are properly cared for. In Medicine Hat I paid a little more for a registered day home so that I knew that there were at least some regulations that had to be followed. Thank god I had mom after that and didn't have to worry about who was taking care of my kid.
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