Quote Originally Posted by mickyc View Post
Taking a smaller monthly cheque isn't going to benefit a lot of families. I don't see many taking advantage of that. As a provider I would prefer to take kids over 18 months so I think it would be nice to not have everyone looking for daycare for their 11-12 month old.
It depends on the demographic of each provider though. For many of us, enquiries for daycare over the age of 2 is almost non existent. In Ontario where we can't have more than 2 under 2 and there is a full day everyday kindergarten program which eliminates nearly 50% of the provinces children aged 3, and almost all aged 4 and older....this further narrows the possibilities for filling our spots.

Also, what about the shortage of spots? While many may not be able to afford the extra 6 months off unpaid...There are far more people who can't even get an under 2 spot in a home daycare in Ontario AND a lot of daycare centres will not accept children under 18 months. So then at 18 months those parents preferring centre options will go to a centre without even considering home daycare because they don't have to from an age perspective, and perhaps it will just become more of a norm to plan ahead for this six month period, if it means that centre care is an option at that point.