Play dates between home daycare providers

[Tot-Time]

Dragonlady3, I fully understand why you would be confused

The ministry overlooked and encouraged play dates between caregivers in the Ottawa area for many years (I can't speak for other areas), but in the same breath they discouraged it in other areas such as Petawawa. As a provider that is new to the Ottawa area, one of the benefits was having play dates, and boy do I love them! Truthfully, in Petawawa a ministry rep from Ottawa would attend and lecture us during our caregiver meetings reminding us to NEVER have more than 5 kids on our premises excluding our own (or children over 10).

Yet, when I moved here, a whole world opened up because play dates were considered ok. I noticed the change or movement towards no play dates when the child who was in childcare drowned during a caregiver play date I really feel for everyone involved, it was truly a mistake / accident (I agree it that it shouldn't have happened), and from what I have heard and understood the caregiver was a good, kind, and compasionate caregiver. Due to this unfortunate situation, the ministry decided it was in the best interest of everyone for caregivers to not have play dates

Anyway, my point was, that yes, the 'no playdate' policy has always been there, just the ministry turned a 'blind eye' to it. Also, like many laws, it is up for interpretation and the discretion of those who enforce the laws / acts that we must follow.

It is up to parents and caregivers who want play dates to band together as one voice won't make changes but many will. I have a copy of a petition that can be signed, I would have to ask the CCPRN if we are allowed to make copies, but my parents and I have signed it and will submit it in hopes of making a difference.

[playfelt]

While the ruling may have been there for always it seemed to be interpreted differently in different places as some of you are noting. I called the ministry when I lived in London to confirm a few things. First did children over 10 count or not count in my limit of 5 and the answer was didnt' count so I had two older siblings that came in the summer. Second question was about my own children's friends coming over to play afterschool either in the yard or in the house and they said while in the yard was preferable they wre allowed in the house because in an emergency or whatever they could simply be sent home in if they were old enough to play outside on their own - over 6 then they were in effect being "watched" by their own parent that was at home. And my last question was about having someone over that brough their own kids be it a parent and child or a caregiver and her chidlren and the response was it was ok for the caregiver to come because SHE was responsible for her daycare children no matter where she took them and I was responsible for mine so we were each responsible for 5 daycare children which was within the law.

We do have people that skirt the laws though such as in Ontario you can not have a home with 10 children and 2 caregivers like you can in other areas. But I know of a couple of incidents where the care was being provided in one home and the other caregiver had her children arrive and leave from her house but they immediately went to a house a few doors down and the two caregivers did the care together. Technically they both had their own daycare and had a "playdate" all day every day. There had been a push since we live so close to Quebec to look into the two caregiver 10 kids model but it never passed. In doing those reviews they may have discovered that some were doing it anyways in their own way to skirt the rules and started to crack down. I do know a lot of this came to light after the accident as Nicole mentioned.

[dragonlady3]

It would appear that the Prov. has been really inconsistent re: this issue over the years. I would really like input from other regions of the Prov. about this. Would you all pass on this question to your friends or relatives around the province and we can all see what 'shakes out of the tree'. This could be really relevant given the fact that the Prov. is now prosecuting people, many of whom may not realize that the interpretation has changed.

[dragonlady3]

Just a quick noted posted to my email by another CCPRN member. It does add a little to the Provinces confusing arguments.

"food for thought?
Since the Ministry contends that our homes are primarily used for Daycare, unlike Libraries and children play areas at restaurant, why is it that I have never heard of any home child care proivder claiming more than 25 or 30% of our household expenses from our income statements?

[Tot-Time]

I do claim more than 30% of my home In Ontario, never claim more than 50% because you are redflagged for an audit.

When you do the break down, 1/3 of my home is space dedicated to daycare, much of the main floor and bedroom level is shared.

What I would love to see is when calculating the hours, it should be taken into consideration especially when calculating the business home of use part, that daycare actually uses my home more than my family. I run daycare 50 hrs per week, plus interviews, plus extended hour care, etc, but my family is only here to sleep basically, which means that most of my hydro (especially when hydro is the most expensive) is being used by the daycare, in the evenings (when hydro is the cheapest) my family is basically sleeping!

I can only imagine how cheap my household bills would be if I wasn't running a home daycare.

There are some days, I think that I would be further ahead working outside of the home because when I consider the cost of running my home, the lease of the van for daycare, the cost of supplies for daycare, etc, I don't really have much of an income. It costs me 3.5 kids to run daycare which is a big reason why I stress when I have a space available.