Daycare in Canada?
#1
Thread Starter
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 1,656
Daycare in Canada?
Hi Everyone,
I work in a Daycare/Nursery in Edinburgh and I was thinking about what daycare is like in Canada.
I want people to share their experiences good/bad with daycare in Canada?
All aspects; working in daycare, your own children in daycare, comparisons from the UK to Canada....or anything as you please
Anything you want to say please post here, it would be greatly appreciated
I work in a Daycare/Nursery in Edinburgh and I was thinking about what daycare is like in Canada.
I want people to share their experiences good/bad with daycare in Canada?
All aspects; working in daycare, your own children in daycare, comparisons from the UK to Canada....or anything as you please
Anything you want to say please post here, it would be greatly appreciated
#2
Re: Daycare in Canada?
Hi Everyone,
I work in a Daycare/Nursery in Edinburgh and I was thinking about what daycare is like in Canada.
I want people to share their experiences good/bad with daycare in Canada?
All aspects; working in daycare, your own children in daycare, comparisons from the UK to Canada....or anything as you please
Anything you want to say please post here, it would be greatly appreciated
I work in a Daycare/Nursery in Edinburgh and I was thinking about what daycare is like in Canada.
I want people to share their experiences good/bad with daycare in Canada?
All aspects; working in daycare, your own children in daycare, comparisons from the UK to Canada....or anything as you please
Anything you want to say please post here, it would be greatly appreciated
- in Toronto daycare people drink a lot. They also smoke a lot of weed, something they say they need due to the parents with whom they have to deal. The daycare has "piss tests" but the same methods are used to circumvent them as we use for office work in the US.
- ten or so years ago the rules for daycare were changed and now one needs an ECE in order to work in one, maybe 20% of employees predate the requirement and aren't qualified; they're paid less.
- the daycare staff take their job very seriously which, in many cases is just as well as the parents don't seem to take being a parent very seriously. The daycare commonly had children a week old and had them for twelve hours a day.
-daycare is staggeringly expensive and, as a business, it seems to offer a tremendous profit margin. There is no way the parents (in two parent families) were financially better off by working and paying for daycare compared with staying home. Ten years ago the cost was $600-$800 month which was about what an employee was paid, that employee would be responsible for five children (actually ten children between two staff); granted the premises for a downtown facility are expensive but there's an unreasonable gap between pay and fees.
- languages are important. Perhaps a third of the parents did not have sufficient English to be able to discuss their child's needs; accordingly multilingualism was sought in the staff.
- you don't want to be on the late shift in a daycare, many parents are late and they're all angry because the fine for being late is quite stiff ($50/hour iirc). They take their anger out on the staff.
- cultural norms for child rearing vary widely. It is difficult to manage a group of children where the standards of behavior differ greatly. <he typed, nearly dying of political correction>
- the waiting list for daycares is such that one should register before getting an erection.
#3
Just Joined
Joined: Mar 2007
Location: Ennis, Ireland
Posts: 13
Re: Daycare in Canada?
I lived with a daycare teacher for years. She worked at the onsite daycare for the electricity utility here. Many of her friends also worked in the daycare. Some observations (based on Toronto):
- in Toronto daycare people drink a lot. They also smoke a lot of weed, something they say they need due to the parents with whom they have to deal. The daycare has "piss tests" but the same methods are used to circumvent them as we use for office work in the US.
- ten or so years ago the rules for daycare were changed and now one needs an ECE in order to work in one, maybe 20% of employees predate the requirement and aren't qualified; they're paid less.
- the daycare staff take their job very seriously which, in many cases is just as well as the parents don't seem to take being a parent very seriously. The daycare commonly had children a week old and had them for twelve hours a day.
-daycare is staggeringly expensive and, as a business, it seems to offer a tremendous profit margin. There is no way the parents (in two parent families) were financially better off by working and paying for daycare compared with staying home. Ten years ago the cost was $600-$800 month which was about what an employee was paid, that employee would be responsible for five children (actually ten children between two staff); granted the premises for a downtown facility are expensive but there's an unreasonable gap between pay and fees.
- languages are important. Perhaps a third of the parents did not have sufficient English to be able to discuss their child's needs; accordingly multilingualism was sought in the staff.
- you don't want to be on the late shift in a daycare, many parents are late and they're all angry because the fine for being late is quite stiff ($50/hour iirc). They take their anger out on the staff.
- cultural norms for child rearing vary widely. It is difficult to manage a group of children where the standards of behavior differ greatly. <he typed, nearly dying of political correction>
- the waiting list for daycares is such that one should register before getting an erection.
- in Toronto daycare people drink a lot. They also smoke a lot of weed, something they say they need due to the parents with whom they have to deal. The daycare has "piss tests" but the same methods are used to circumvent them as we use for office work in the US.
- ten or so years ago the rules for daycare were changed and now one needs an ECE in order to work in one, maybe 20% of employees predate the requirement and aren't qualified; they're paid less.
- the daycare staff take their job very seriously which, in many cases is just as well as the parents don't seem to take being a parent very seriously. The daycare commonly had children a week old and had them for twelve hours a day.
-daycare is staggeringly expensive and, as a business, it seems to offer a tremendous profit margin. There is no way the parents (in two parent families) were financially better off by working and paying for daycare compared with staying home. Ten years ago the cost was $600-$800 month which was about what an employee was paid, that employee would be responsible for five children (actually ten children between two staff); granted the premises for a downtown facility are expensive but there's an unreasonable gap between pay and fees.
- languages are important. Perhaps a third of the parents did not have sufficient English to be able to discuss their child's needs; accordingly multilingualism was sought in the staff.
- you don't want to be on the late shift in a daycare, many parents are late and they're all angry because the fine for being late is quite stiff ($50/hour iirc). They take their anger out on the staff.
- cultural norms for child rearing vary widely. It is difficult to manage a group of children where the standards of behavior differ greatly. <he typed, nearly dying of political correction>
- the waiting list for daycares is such that one should register before getting an erection.
#4
Re: Daycare in Canada?
Originally Posted by dbd33
in Toronto daycare people drink a lot. They also smoke a lot of weed, something they say they need due to the parents with whom they have to deal. The daycare has "piss tests" but the same methods are used to circumvent them as we use for office work in the US.
ten or so years ago the rules for daycare were changed and now one needs an ECE in order to work in one, maybe 20% of employees predate the requirement and aren't qualified; they're paid less.
the daycare staff take their job very seriously which, in many cases is just as well as the parents don't seem to take being a parent very seriously. The daycare commonly had children a week old and had them for twelve hours a day.
daycare is staggeringly expensive and, as a business, it seems to offer a tremendous profit margin. There is no way the parents (in two parent families) were financially better off by working and paying for daycare compared with staying home. Ten years ago the cost was $600-$800 month which was about what an employee was paid, that employee would be responsible for five children (actually ten children between two staff); granted the premises for a downtown facility are expensive but there's an unreasonable gap between pay and fees.
Although fulltime daycare was too expensive for me to afford, daycare workers were notoriously poorly paid, and I understand they still are.
languages are important. Perhaps a third of the parents did not have sufficient English to be able to discuss their child's needs; accordingly multilingualism was sought in the staff.
you don't want to be on the late shift in a daycare, many parents are late and they're all angry because the fine for being late is quite stiff ($50/hour iirc). They take their anger out on the staff.
cultural norms for child rearing vary widely. It is difficult to manage a group of children where the standards of behavior differ greatly.
the waiting list for daycares is such that one should register before getting an erection.
To secure that spot, she had submitted her application form as soon as she received confirmation that she had conceived. The daycare centre would not accept an application until there was confirmation of conception. The woman had a positive pregnancy test on a Saturday, and submitted her application on the Monday morning. She did that even before her parents or parents-in-law knew she was pregnant.
A friend of hers had not been so lucky and had her second baby at a different daycare centre from her first child.
In Calgary there also are day homes, run by mothers who take in a few extra kids over and above their own kids. I understand they are more affordable than daycare centres. However, they vary in quality. I gather some of them are good, and some of them are bad. The thing is, how do you know how good or bad they are? There really isn't another pair of adult eyes checking.
Some couples choose the nanny route. It is an expensive way to go but, perhaps when you have two children, and all the more so when you have three children, it may be more feasible, overall, than a daycare centre. I have known nanny situations that have worked out well, both from the employers' points of view and from the nannies' points of view. I also have known nanny situations that have worked out badly, either for the employers or for the nannies. Some people make bad nannies, but by the same token some employers are exploitative, even abusive.
#5
Re: Daycare in Canada?
No, I'm not joking. When I met Ms. Daycare I thought use of daycare was a bad thing, excusable only by poverty, but over the years I came to the view that, at least, the daycare staff were interested in the children so maybe it wasn't so bad.
#6
Re: Daycare in Canada?
I don't know what the deal is with that in Calgary. My impression, when my kids were in daycare, was that child care workers were required to be able to speak English, and that was about it. Several of the workers were from non-English speaking countries, and their English was a bit dodgy. But they were fluent enough to communicate with the kids about the basics of life.
A huge bone of contention among the staff was that "problem" children were subject to penalty fees; none of the extra fees went to the staff who had to deal with the children.
#7
Thread Starter
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 1,656
Re: Daycare in Canada?
-daycare is staggeringly expensive and, as a business, it seems to offer a tremendous profit margin. There is no way the parents (in two parent families) were financially better off by working and paying for daycare compared with staying home. Ten years ago the cost was $600-$800 month which was about what an employee was paid, that employee would be responsible for five children (actually ten children between two staff); granted the premises for a downtown facility are expensive but there's an unreasonable gap between pay and fees.
Interesting, Thanks for the reply
Emma
#8
Thread Starter
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 1,656
Re: Daycare in Canada?
Found this,
http://www.hfxnews.com/index.cfm?sid=20912&sc=89
apart from the recent drive by shooting in Dartmouth my new life looks great doesnt it.
http://www.hfxnews.com/index.cfm?sid=20912&sc=89
apart from the recent drive by shooting in Dartmouth my new life looks great doesnt it.