Quote Originally Posted by Momof4 View Post
Michelle, be careful when your son has a friend come over. If he's under 10 he counts as your responsibity and you could nullify your insurance or be shut down if the Ministry comes by. I'm just worried about you so thought I would mention this.
Yup - in Ontario there is debate at the moment about 'play dates on private property' and if they are 'illegal' as well .... technically the DNA does say that there can be no more than 5 children per premise regardless of the number of adults present ... and in the past that was interpreted to mean you had to each have your own 'premise' to operate out of but you could VISIT however after the drowning death in Orleans Ottawa a couple summers ago where local providers and met in someones yard and the child drowned in the pool - a debate about this rose all over Ottawa and surrounding areas. While they were never 'charged' with anything memos flew around at many of the OEYC and other support programs advising that 'play dates' were to be conducted only on PUBLIC venues ... aka parks, OEYC, library and so forth you could not have a playdate on private property unless you had LESS than 5 daycare children in attendance in total.

Now there is nothing I personally can find directly from the Ministry of Education saying that play dates for home childcare providers are 'banned' ... it is all just 'advice' from support agencies but I would definitely tread cautiously if you are choosing to do this still - make sure your insurance carrier KNOWS and your POLICES state that it is ok in writing or you could find yourself without insurance in an incident occurred as well as you COULD find yourself with a Ministry visit and at the least a 'warning' that you cannot have more than 5 children per premise regardless of the number of adults present unless you are a licensed day care.