If you are a parent, you know there is nothing more anxiety inducing than arranging child care. You need to find someone you can trust, but you are on a budget. They need to be nearby, but you are willing to go out of your way for better care if needed. You have to visit. You have to interview the caregivers. You have to closely review the curriculum. You have to review state regulatory ratings and violations for the potential daycare. You also have to find someplace that works with your work hours and that ensures all attendees are vaccinated (because not ever day care does in this state). As an American parent, this is completely overwhelming. So overwhelming, in fact, we arranged to have a combination of family help and a wonderful private nanny in our home because there was no available space in an acceptable day care that met our expectations and worked with our schedules. Most American parents are not lucky enough to afford such luxuries and must depend on center-based day care options.
Needless to say, the prospect of securing childcare for our very-soon-to-be two year old during the move to Canada was terrifying.
The Canadian daycare experience has been drastically different, which is especially surprising given we have been arranging day care from a distance. In the province of Ontario, where we will be living, you complete one daycare application online and can have the information sent to up to ten high quality, provincially regulated day cares in your geographic region. How do you know where the day cares are in comparison to your home or work? Simple, the application has an interactive map feature that will help you identify prospective day cares and their distance from those locations.
Now, the true beauty and elegance of the Canadian system is this: After you submit the application, the directors of the Day Cares ACTUALLY CALL YOU when a space becomes available. You then go through the paperwork and visit the centre to ensure it is a good fit all around. Because it is Canada, there are also some aspects (e.g. up to date vaccinations) that are non-negotiable for all day cares.
The day care provides lunch and snacks everyday, as well as outdoor playtime, story time, nap time, and a strong play-based curriculum designed for both enhancing development and school preparation. As a parent in Canada, I do not have to by 37 glue sticks or 15 boxes of tissues, because my fees actually cover those needs in addition to paying the teachers at the centre a living wage. Both the day care and my new job offer some flexibility with the scheduling, and the ratio of teacher to child is 1:5 instead of the 1:10 ratio it would be for a 2-3 year old in the state of South Carolina.
While the Canadian system is not perfect (you still must submit that application well in advance of when your child needs care), it is still quite different from the experience I have had as an American parent. High quality day care has been consistently proven to positively impact the cognitive and socioemotional development of children (Peisner-Feinberg et al., 2001; Vandell, Henderson, & Wilson, 1988). By making finding a day care easy, and appropriately regulating the curriculum of those day cares, Canada makes it easy to connect parents to the care the need for their children and ensure they can feel confident in the quality of that care.
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