Letter to parents regarding Bill 10

Hi
I'm just curious as to how many dcp have sent home letters or directly spoke to dcf regarding Bill 10 and how it will affect us and them. How have your daycare families responded to the news when you've told them.
I'm quite surprised they are raising the age to 13 when most young girls are babysitting other children at that age or shortly after. I know that I do not want to care for a 13 year old that is going through puberty....this whole Bill 10 just does not make sense. Really going to make it hard for parents to find quality daycare for their children and very sad some of the providers will have to give up children they've had since they were small :(

I bring the bill up in interviews. With my current families I just spoke with them at pick up when I handed them a form to fill out (disclaimer re: being private).

As for raising the age to 13. You can thank the agencies for that one. Subsidy is currently only until a child turns 10. There are child who still need care and have to go through a possess of proving this to extend the care. Sometimes the lose subsidy before this can happen. So agency requested the age chance so they don't have to do all the extra work to extend the subsidy care.

After raising three of our own, I think, and this is just my opinion, that children that are 13 should not require care, I agree don't leave them alone for hours, but at 13 our own girls were babysitting for neighbours and having no problems at all. They took a first aid babysitting course and were very good at taking care of younger children for a few hours. Geesh, my husband got his first job in a restaurant at 12, lol....I think children are babied far to much these days and this is why there are issues with leaving them alone...this is going to create a huge back log of none spaces for children ages 12 & 13.....

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Originally Posted by martymonty

After raising three of our own, I think, and this is just my opinion, that children that are 13 should not require care, I agree don't leave them alone for hours, but at 13 our own girls were babysitting for neighbours and having no problems at all. They took a first aid babysitting course and were very good at taking care of younger children for a few hours. Geesh, my husband got his first job in a restaurant at 12, lol....I think children are babied far to much these days and this is why there are issues with leaving them alone...this is going to create a huge back log of none spaces for children ages 12 & 13.....

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I think different kids need different kinds of care. My son is 12 and babysits. My daughter is 14 and far more mature. She was babysitting up to 8 hour days at age 12 during the summer of that year. My son did the babysitting course at age 10 and at 9 the Home alone, Stranger safety course. Granted he had an older sister at home with him at that age and we didn't leave them for very long, but I think you'll find that a huge portion of tweens and teens with or without this course are not in any kind of childcare setting....most likely if anything, an after school club.

Think about the summers and how full time parents go on. Regardless of being home alone at age 13, does the average parent really want to leave their child for 40 hours a week at home alone? Likely not. I however don't think this age group will be an issue at all to home daycare providers and I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. I don't think it will impact the industry at all. Day camps for this age group are generally cheaper than full time care. My kids are doing a 1 week day camp with early drop off and late pick up and it is costing $315 for the pair of them. That is $135 less than what I charge for full time care without any extended care. Parents don't use home daycare for this age group now at large anyway, so the bill isn't going to change that. I actually think the majority of tweens and teens don't require care and actually already are staying home alone.

I agree Bright Sparks, but do know a couple friends who have children in this age bracket who feel they will need daycare in the summer, pd. days, xmas etc. and are frantic they won't be able to find anyone who can do it. One has a very severe allergy so day camps will never be something her mom will be comfortable with...I feel bad for anyone in this situation...I'm like you, I no longer take kids who are in school but not sure if those that need care will be able to secure it with the age limit being raised.

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Originally Posted by martymonty

I agree Bright Sparks, but do know a couple friends who have children in this age bracket who feel they will need daycare in the summer, pd. days, xmas etc. and are frantic they won't be able to find anyone who can do it. One has a very severe allergy so day camps will never be something her mom will be comfortable with...I feel bad for anyone in this situation...I'm like you, I no longer take kids who are in school but not sure if those that need care will be able to secure it with the age limit being raised.

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I live in a pretty small place in the golden horseshoe, but 20 minutes away from 2 big cities. There are no shortage of daycamps for this age group in my town so I can't imagine there being in larger places either with more resources. Just the YMCA along with the town, there is always something available. I am notoriously last minute registering too and I've never struggled to find openings. It's hard for any family with kids who have allergies, but I can't imagine them being at any greater risk in a day camp than with a home daycare provider. Probably quite the opposite considering ministry governed operators have to adhere to strict guidelines and protocol for this exact kind of situation and they are far more used to dealing with these types of things than a home daycare provider.

I would tend to agree with you on the allergy point bright sparks, but I had dealings with allergies for the same family for over 20 years (sisters children) and I know from dealing with them that there have been many issues in the schools where children have come to school after having ate peanut butter, or brought cookies, snacks etc. that say May contain peanuts and this mom has had to deal with the school.....with my daycare I have been TOTALLY peanut free since the first child started coming here with allergies and my families all know that if they come and have eaten peanut butter or anything that might contain peanuts, they are sent home....I am very strict on this rule....so sending a child with severe allergies such as this child has to a summer camp, I can't say I blame the mom for being hesitant....I'm sure they will figure out what to do, but adding to the age limit will now mean there will be a couple more years where she will have to worry....I just feel very bad for anyone in this situation...:(