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Market place program
Here's what I sent them:
I usually watch marketplace because I thought the show provided good information about products and services. While I do find the show does sensationalise it's content I was really dismayed to find you provided very poor, inaccurate, unbalanced and tried to frighten the viewer in your dispose on "unlicensed daycares.
As you may have guessed I am one of those "unlicensed Daycare" providers. First of all we call ourselves Home Daycare Providers. There are many community associations which we belong to which provide referrals, support and professional development. We are the norm, what you showed on your program is not. The persons interviewed are babysitters. They obviously are not running any daycare program/curriculum and do not have a designated area for their "daycare" in their home. Professional home daycare providers do. The storefront "daycare" was ridiculous and should be shut down which leads me to a very important point. Why did you not ask the parents why they picked that type of "daycare" to put their children in? Why did you not talk about pool safety and if you are entertaining ANYONE in your backyard with a pool why the pool is not fenced in? Why did you not show a good home daycare? Instead of trying to scare parents away from ALL of us?
You missed so many opportunities to present a fair expose on this business - shame on you.
If the government decides to license us fine. I welcome the visits and the criteria instilled to which I would have to comply. You see I have done that already. In order to have referrals from The Halton Daycare Providers Association in Milton, Ontario I had to - every person in my household over 18 had to have a police check, I had the health department visit and inspect the premises, the fire department came and checked for fire safety, I had to have my infant/child first aid and cpr certificate and finally we were checked to make sure we have never been investigated or had a complaint from children's services. Does this sound like someone who just decided to hang out the daycare shingle? I am furious at the doubt you have put into the consumers minds. The responsibility lies with the parents to inspect, ask questions and come for visits before they sign on and by the way, home daycare providers do not accept everyone who comes to us for care - we weed out the familys who consider us "babysitters" and who do not follow our policies. We are selective with our clients and so they should be with ANY daycare. Alot of my clients have been to the licensed commercial daycares and have left for the impersonal treatment their child and they have received. Check them out as well.
You will be hearing from many of my colleagues on this issue.
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Nicely said Mimi! I've not yet seen the program as I only have Netflix but am waiting to be able to see it online. Of course, I too will be writing in. Thank you for voicing your opinion on behalf of all your peers :)
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That's great Mimi! Did you post it under comments or did you email them? I couldn't watch the show last night and plan to watch it tonight after which I am going to be emailing Marketplace directly with my thoughts. I am going to push for a follow-up piece showcasing what a quality home daycare program looks like and what parents should look for and ask when choosing a daycare for their child. Don't know if it will get anywhere, but we have to try right?
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I went to CBC.ca and emailed them. Who knows what will come of our comments to them, if anything, but we can't let that show represent our profession
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Agreed mimi! Maybe if enough of us email them, they will see that is isn't a couple of ticked off daycare providers, but a greater mass of people who feel this issue is important and should not be misrepresented. I will email Marketplace and CBC...it can't hurt to try all avenues! It actually makes me question what else is being misrepresented in the Marketplace peices...
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I said yesterday that I wasn't going to keep my panties in a twist over this, but this chick pissed me off....my response to her is below. I'm putting together an email for CBC directly as Mimi did, but I need to think on it some more. THEN my panties will be untwisted :)
Post from Dimple Verma:
Why are so many parents defending the day care that was investigated? CBC just opened everyone's eyes as to the problems of unlicensed places. They exposed dangerous problems, no baby seats, too many children, inadequate supervision, no fire escapes, dirty and dangerous sleeping and play areas. The list goes on. Do the parents who support these types of day cares want to see the next day care tragedy unfold? Marketplace did us all a favour and went undercover so we could see what is really going on. We should thank them. Thank you MARKETPLACE!
Let me explain this:
First, NO ONE is defending the daycares that were investigated. What we are defending, however, are the 1000s of wonderful, hardworking and capable providers who have now been painted with the same brush as a couple bad apples. I for one applaud Marketplace for exposing terribly dangerous settings. HOWEVER, they certainly did nothing to counter those images by profiling the other side of things - the exceptional unlicensed daycares. In addition, they actually made it appear that licensed daycare facilities are the only places in which a child can be cared for properly. I've worked in daycare centres and in my own, unlicensed home daycare. If you really believe that a license is a cure all, then I'm sorry, but you, and others like you, are grossly misinformed. I have seen things that would curl your hair.
I am an ECE graduate with my first aid/cpr, 18 years of experience as a resource teacher, EA, Head Teacher for Junior, Senior Preschool and Infant classes, private nanny for two families and 12 years running my own home daycare. I have spent thousands upon thousands of dollars developing my business. I am fully insured, provide a stimulating curriculum, cater to specialized diets including food sensitivities, vegan and vegetarian lifestyles (the children will NEVER see a bowl of Kraft Dinner), work within the legal ratio, have superior standards of care and am very good at what I do. I am not alone. There are many of us. I have never, ever seen a licensed centre or licensed home daycare facility offer what I do. In fact, I've had several clients pick me because they found most of the licensed facilities to be dirty, uncaring and, frankly, dismal.
While I would like to be licensed, it is not a possibility at this time. The age restrictions are unrealistic and very restrictive for home care. From what I've heard from various people is that the supervision offered by the large agencies is minimal, at best. They will offer to share their toys with me and provide support, training and insurance. These are all things I can, and do myself without having to hand out up to 35% of MY hard earned income. To me, agencies are not doing much more than extorting money from hard working providers with little payoff. No thank you. What I would welcome however, is individual licensing that is reasonable and realistic within the home daycare community.
And really, shouldn't parents be accountable for some of their choices as well? I wouldn't leave my dog at those daycares, let alone my children. There are procedures involved in parents selecting a daycare as well as Providers selecting families. What the hell were those parents thinking? I hold THEM accountable also, for making a very poor and irresponsible judgment call.
So, Dimple Verma, when a program airs a segment which clearly slanders an entire group of hard working, amazing people and puts their already disrespected industry at risk, it ruffles more than a few feathers. We're bound to get a little defensive when our hard work is made to look like garbage. I am a caring, nurturing and dynamic provider. I am educated. I am very good at my job. I have worked for nearly 2 decades developing a business that I'm willing to guard and defend with fierce pride. Marketplace has done nothing more than expose a couple bad apples and taken the rest down with them. It sure makes my years of hard work feel worth it. Thank you Marketplace for your lazy and skewed journalism. You have lost a viewer.
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I added a link of my web page in the comments section of this tv show. So parents can see that there are great unlicensed home daycare and how they are suppose to be. Since that what was missing in the show maybe some of you would like to share more examples of your sites...
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Cfred, I am working on a letter to CBC and Marketplace as well. So far I have two pages! I am trying to make it shorter, but there are so many points to cover! I was so disgusted with the Marketplace report when I watched it! We definitely need to stand up and let our voices be heard. I am providing them with a link to my website (I hope you will too) so they can see an example of a quality unlicensed daycare. Art and Crafts, your idea is good too to post links to our websites in the comment section for people to see examples of quality care. I sincerely hope we can all stand together and put enough pressure on CBC to present a follow-up show in which they showcase quality home daycares (licensed and unlicensed) so that parents can see what is possible and what they should look for and also so that the bar is set higher for all daycare providers. As it stands now, after viewing this Marketplace report, any daycare provider who is within ration and has car seats is probably thinking "wow, I'm doing a great job!"....I would much rather showcase the good ones and have those same providers thinking "wow, I could really improve if I did x y and z..I would love for my daycare to be more like that". Oh I could go on and on...but I'll save that for my email to CBC ;)
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Okay, I threw my link on there along with a detailed listing of how my place is run.
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Great job educating the public ladies with your intelligent, open, honest answers. I posted an answer too among the comments.