Because that's life.Quote:
Rachael, how can you be so nonchalant in saying that people with multiple young children "simply won't decide to open their own business, they will have one less option"?? Exactly how many other options do you think there are?
I realize you think that the laws here were unfair to begin with, and I realize that providers in other provinces have figured out a way to make ends meet with harsher restrictions. But that is not the point. Regardless on whether or not they were right or fair or whatever other word you want to use, Ontario has been running with these ratios for decades. Providers, myself included, have planned our families around the current laws. Thousands of providers have bought large homes with separate daycare spaces, for example, have planned the number and spacing of their children, have made huge, life-altering decisions based on the CURRENT ratios, and now are faced with trying to figure out how to fix the damage that has already been done. They can't magically go back in time and have less kids or space them further apart. They can't just pick up and move to a city with more job opportunities. They can't go back in time and decide NOT to buy that bigger house, NOT to spend money on renovations for daycare, NOT to upgrade their schooling with ECE courses, etc etc etc. Those choices were made years ago based on the current ratios, and the damage from them has already been done.
These are people's livelihoods at stake, that the government has thrown away. I'll be damned if I'm going to sit back and allow a bunch of corrupt politicians throw my career under the bus in order to cover their own asses, and do nothing about it. I'm going to fight for all the providers and families that will run out of options after this law goes through, because then I can at least look myself in the eye in the morning.
Jobs come and go. Companies come and go.
I came to Canada planning to be a stay-at-home parent based on my husband's $100k+ job. Guess what? He died when we had been here less than a year and before his life insurance covered him.
That plan didn't work out and so we adapted.
We ALL make life altering choices and plans based on CURRENT situations and none of us can go back in time and change them. We have a term for that - it's called LIFE.
When people opt to have a family, they have to consider if they can afford that. This is a simple fact regardless of how that family sources their income. There are lots and lots of people who due to the taxes they pay, the cost of living in their area, the income levels who have to decide that they cannot afford to have another child.
The mere fact you consider you should be protected from that when no other industry is, is ludicrous.
We all plan our families around our current financial situation. It's laughable that you would think that isn't the case. However, companies fold, people get laid off, and it's life. It sucks but it's life.
Everyone also buys their home based on the income they have and expect to continue to have but again, life doesn't come with a promise that income will be protected.
I appreciate that this might have been a career born out of necessity - trust me, it was for me too. But shit happens and it happens to everyone not an exclusive sub-group of the community. People get divorced and their income decreases, people have medical emergencies and there income decreases, the list goes on and on.
As said in an earlier post, there is time to figure out a plan which is a luxury compared to some events that others face. Sure, you might need to get a second job - been there, done that, had months were I finished day care and hopped in the car to drive across the city for a 6 hour shift elsewhere when my numbers were low and my income didn't cover the mortgage. Much like the situation you might be facing in a year's time. There are people whose change in circumstance means downsizing - at least you will have the asset to enable you to consider that option too if you now feel your house is too big for your future needs.
I don't mean to sound brazen - I guess I've been dealt enough crappy hands to deal with the reality of a situation vs sobbing about what is lost.
The facts remain that you have been aware of this likely change for a while and now you know it's probably time to plan for that becoming reality. But lines along those where you were hoping to have a 4th child when most people don't get the opportunity of three, seem bizarrely selfish.
Bottom line, you now know you might not be able to afford to continue adding to your family. It sucks but it's a reality most adult Canadian's face. Bottom line, your business won't be taking the long term plan you hoped but again, it's a reality most small business owners also have to face.
It really isn't the end of the World. I promise when you wake up tomorrow, the world will still be turning. I can also promise you that it will all settle.
A lower income than hoped for/expected/planned for is hardly a situation that thousands before you haven't had to face with far less notice.
It's not your disappointment that I can't relate to - but it's the way you feel you should be exempt from situations that most other citizens of this country have to face and it's the tone of entitlement that you deserve the future to be smooth sailing and for guarantees that your income will never be adversely affected by things not in your control. That's not living in the real world. Sorry but it isn't.
Life has dealt you a hand you hoped it wouldn't. How you deal with it, is entirely up to you.
