Play dates between home daycare providers

[dragonlady3]

Like everyone has an unsafe home! Or has a fitted out car to drive to these locations some of which are not as safe as our homes! I think the Prov. needs a reality check. AND if it is a grey area...they should not be prosecuting people until they get it clarified.

[Tot-Time]

AND if it is a grey area...they should not be prosecuting people until they get it clarified.

Truthfully, it isn't a grey area. When I lived in Petawawa (7 - 16 yrs ago) and used to attend the caregiver meetings there, we once had a ministry rep from Ottawa come in and strictly told us that we were not allowed to have other children on our premises unless we had less than 5 children (other than our own). This included any child neighbours, friends, and visiting family.

I think the ministry just turned a blind eye to play dates because there are so many benefits to it. All it takes is one accident/incident for the ministry to enforce the DNA to its truest form. But they aren't denying us all play dates, just any with another caregiver unless we have less than 5 children in total (else than the children that live on the premises).

But what confuses me most is the private premises part of the DNA for informal childcare ... a private premise is any premises that isn't public property. Which if the ministry wanted to, could they not tell us we can no longer meet at places that are privately owned but open to the public, such as certain play groups, farms, museums, etc?

I do agree that the ministry needs to be more clear on their policies and update policies to be more realistic. I do have a vehicle that I can travel with, I am not worried about my driving with the children, I am worried about the crazies that might be on the roads when I am!

Here are some links to the DNA:

http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/sta...es_90d02_e.htm

http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/reg...s_900262_e.htm

This one is a little more user friendly and was useful for school, not so much for home daycare:

http://childcarelearning.on.ca/child_care_setting/

http://www.cdrcp.com/ccip/day-nurseries-act

[dragonlady3]

I'm finding myself more and more confused by this legislation. I was inspected many times over the last 15 years and on some occasions we were having play dates with another day care. (I am downtown and several neighbours have been aggravated by the extra parking demands and inconvenience of my day care). In 2000, Lise Hamer of the Ministry of Child and Youth Services wrote both day cares a letter stating we were to "limit visits between the two day care businesses". She never told us what 'limit' meant....2 visits a week, a month??? but we were not told to STOP visiting! We were not fined for visits and faced no charges until 2009. That seems to be when the attitude changed.
Anyway, CCPRN seems to be taking this issue seriously and has asked all of us to contact our MPPs with our concerns and maybe encourage a more realistic attitude re: play dates. They wrote:" The impact on child care will lead to poorer quality care and potential loss of child care providers through: increased isolation of caregivers; decreased opportunities for children to socialize with other children and interact in a new environment; decreased learning/networking opportunities for caregivers; outing opportunities limited to public space which often are less safe than a caregiver's home; no opportunity for experienced caregivers to mentor new caregivers on incorporating quality proven daycare practices...."