Ya ~ love this 'grey' area of the DNA cause it is another illogical rule that contradicts itself

We never had an issue with play dates when I first opened and was with an agency ~ they use to promote the play dates in the community with other providers to minimize isolation ~ I used to have a peer over here to my house all the time my first year or my crew would go to her place .... it was not considered 'illegal' because we were not operating the daycare with more than 5 children per premise because we each had our own premise of operation ~ parents dropped off to the 'main premise', children ate and slept at the main premise and engaged in majority of the program at their 'own premise' .... we were just visiting for a short portion of the day a couple times a week to allow the kids more exposure to other children and ourselves someone to brainstorm and so forth.

However after that issue in Ottawa some agencies started 'restricting' play dates to only in PUBLIC venues ... so it is ok at the park, at the OEYC, at the library but NOT ok at another providers private property unless your number of children is less than 5 total cause in 'agency care' you have to count your own kids in the ratio ... so no more play dates for us except at 'public venues' ... and even that 'mandate' is not consistent across Ontario there are rural agencies and so forth that either did not GET the memo or have chosen to 'interpret' play dates differently and still allow them.

The logic of that makes absolutely no sense to me ~ I know for a fact that my backyard is safer than the PARK because I never have to pick up needles, used condoms, cigarette butts and other dangers in my yard but every time we go to the park the kiddies have to 'sit at the edge' while we do a safety inspection! Not to mention that lack of adequate supervision of children occurs in public just as much as in private ~ I have seen people loose children at the park, library, have seen kids get 'hurt' at the OEYC playgroups and so forth.

Just a silly rule that further isolates providers and results in less people in some communities wanting to enter this field and creating a lack of services for parents!