Ontario Caregivers - daycare announcement due today

[Discoveries]

Treehome I understand your wish to inform your clients as soon as possible. I live very close to you, and know all to well about the huge shortages we have in our area for the under two age group. I feel horrible now turning away parents desperate to find care for their children when their mat. leave comes to an end. I can't imagine it getting worse. Centers are not likely to jump in and increase their infant slots either, with the cost of providing infant care in a center being $80/day. The 3's & 4's used to help offset this cost, but now they are in school. All the changes to 'fix' things seems to just be creating another mess.

[treeholm]

I turn away a potential family about once a week, and it is always someone either pregnant or on mat leave. When I started, I filled with 4 one year olds, to add to my granddaughter, before I even opened! This is indeed a mess. I talked to a friend last night at a commercial daycare centre who told me that they only have room for 10 one year olds. They prefer to take 2 and 3 year olds... yes, and so will all the home daycares now....

[treeholm]

I guess we need to bombard the ministry with calls asking what we should tell parents when we give them their two weeks notice in terms of where they should take their one year olds...