Daycare is not something Mrs.CBB and I are worried about at the moment, but for those of you who are parents, that might be a different story.
Struggling To Find A Daycare In Ontario
You don’t read up about kids when you don’t have kids; at least, I don’t unless it’s brought to my attention.
I tend to thrive on “How To” articles and DIY projects I need to do around the house because I enjoy learning about these topics.
This post mostly comes after our friends divulged how much they paid for their 1-year-old child to attend a licensed daycare.
They also told us how they struggled to find a spot and weren’t sure they could get their child into the daycare as they were waiting.
I asked what other options they had, and the first was to bring their child to family.
They chose the daycare for the day-to-day interaction so their child could interact with other children.
Luckily for them, a spot opened up.
Are parents really in the dark about who’s looking after their kids?
Marketplace surveyed Canadians 18 years of age and older with a child under 13.
The survey was conducted to provide information for their “Daycare Information in Canada” episode, which aired this past Friday.
According to the survey, just 20% of children find spots in Canada in a licensed daycare.
Non-licensed daycares have one rule: they can only have five children.
- Does it matter to you if the home is safe?
- Do you care who comes and goes?
- Will it matter where your kids sleep?
- Do you care if the house is clean or if they are smoking around the kids in the home?
- How important is it that your childcare provider has safety training?
Caring More About Your Children Than The Money
I’m hoping most parents by now, if you are reading this, are saying, “Of course, we care.”
Even if your child is in an unlicensed facility, ensuring you have answers to your questions is imperative.
I’m sure some parents believe that getting into a licensed daycare won’t be that difficult when heading back to work.
It shouldn’t be, and it’s a shame that daycare waiting lists are so long for these families.
It’s different when you are taking care of other people’s children.
I agree it’s a big responsibility some are willing to take on.
Not all non-licensed home-based daycares or daycare centers are illegal (have more than five children).
Still, they are not getting inspected by the government like all licensed daycares where inspectors review a list of requirements.
According to the show, daycare home inspectors will come into licensed daycares and check the entire place from top to bottom.
Licensed Daycare Requirements In Ontario
- Credentials
- Schedules
- Health and safety of the environment ie: baby gates on all stair access and smoke detectors that work.
- First Aid/CPR
All licensed facilities require providers to have a police background check….66% of the parents surveyed said no, they did not have a police check done or didn’t know.
You won’t get these inspections in unlicensed daycares, and according to the survey, most parents did not know if the childcare provider had first aid or CPR.
One unlicensed daycare provider in the program didn’t even know what the proper number was to call for an emergency number.
She said, “991”.
A simple error, maybe but it’s not like she was nervous to be on camera, they were undercover.
She didn’t even have any safety training, which she didn’t feel was necessary because she’d been watching kids for years.
Oh, and nap time consisted of sleeping in a dungeon-like room, likely with cobwebs, dust, and who knows what else (it was hard to tell) in a so-called area (basement) of the home with no windows or outdoor access.
You should be shaking your head in disbelief because this is the kind of care in some home daycares in Ontario, and they “can” get away with it.
How Much is Daycare in Ontario?
Good question, but you can pay as little as $25 a day + for unlicensed or up to $45 per day or more in licensed daycare.
I made a few phone calls and read online ads in the area.
Your best bet is to call around, research the facilities, and visit these places.
The friend of ours I spoke of above pays $1100 a month in a licensed daycare facility for their child, which I was in awe about.
This sparked my question the other day on Facebook for my fans. I wanted to know what parents pay for daycare in their area.
I thought $1100 was outrageous, but not any longer after watching this timely episode.
Daily Costs Of Daycare In Ontario
Some of the fans on my Facebook page say they paid $30 per day or $150 per week concerning not getting penalized for school holidays as a licensed daycare center would.
Other moms felt it wasn’t worth it for them to return to work given their tax bracket and other factors, so they are stay-at-home moms, many of whom go on to homeschool their children.
According to the show, “over 757 complaints were made reporting unlicensed daycares in the past 3 years for having too many kids”.
I bet it’s a lucrative business when you can stuff 10 kids in a home, raking in thousands of dollars a month.
Sometimes, it’s all cash under the table, and taxes are unpaid.
Finding The Right Daycare Provider
Did you ask all the right questions when searching for your childcare provider?
One woman in the episode went as far as to say she was licensed when she was not and had only 8 kids when, in fact, she had many more.
Please don’t believe everything you hear; I don’t care how nice they are.
Mrs.CBB has a friend who has her Early Childhood Education (ECE), First aid, CPR and the parents loved her and with good reason, she was good at what she did, she played by the rules.
She ran a licensed daycare while she was home caring for her child. She went on to become a teacher in Ontario and no longer does home daycare.
Are parents as worried that their family members might not have ECE, First Aid, or CPR as we require in licensed facilities?
A question you can only answer yourself.
Should You Be Financially Stable Before Starting A Family?
Kids cost a lot of money, that’s no secret, and some individuals don’t ever want to have children, and that’s OK too.
Sure, I’ve heard if we wait until we can afford them, we will never have them.
The answer to this is really up to the individuals as no one can make this decision but them because they know their situation better than anyone else.
I don’t think there is any right or wrong answer.
When I was growing up, I don’t recall any of my friends having their moms go to work.
We didn’t live the kind of lifestyle that we do today, where we have to have it all.
I was a minimalist because it was more important for moms to stay home and give one-on-one care to the kids in the early years, which is so important.
Dual-Income Households
Times have changed now, though, where both parents have to head out to work to pay the mortgage, rent, bills, school tuition, etc, but many people stay home with the kids.
Why are some not able to stay home and others can?
It all depends on lifestyle, debt, career choice, and other personal factors, but that’s up to the parents to decide.
- Can I be a stay-at-home mom/dad for my children?
- Am I eligible for a childcare subsidy in Ontario?
- How will I pay for my child to go to a daycare?
People are struggling to pay the bills living pay to pay as costs are rising, especially all around us, even when it comes to having kids.
One mom blew me away with the figures she provided for us for her 3 kids over the long haul.
She sounds pretty excited to see the payments coming down as time passes, but I’m sure every penny was worth it for her kids.
We pay $110 a week for 2-3 days for our Senior Kindergarten child to attend daycare, $40-$60/week for before and after school for our 5 yr old and $50/week for before/after school for our 7 yr old.
Around $840/month. In Sept, we’ll be down to $400/month for both!
So far, we have spent around $80,000.00. Yikes!
Increase The number of LIcenced Daycares
Parents need more licensed daycare facilities in Ontario, and the provincial government needs to help create more licensed facilities.
Until then, parents will continue to scramble to figure out who will watch their kids and pray they make the right decisions.
I wanted to research different daycare centers in Toronto and surrounding cities.
Video Cam Childcare Ability
Peekaboo childcare centers in and around the GTA allow you to watch your children via Video Over the Internet (VOI) for a monthly fee.
Once registered with Peekaboo, the parent receives a parent handbook with many questions answered for the parent, as well as policies and procedures.
They also get a bi-annual progress report and parent-teacher interviews.
It’s nice to read that the facility has many common questions parents have already answered, so they can read to find out what they want to know.
Although we don’t have any children, I learned plenty from watching this program.
I know that when the time comes, we’ll do our daycare homework to get the highest quality care and be the voice for our children.
You can read the full marketplace story here, and if you have time, watch the episode on the television; it’s worth it.
Discussion: Should a standardized set of rules and requirements exist for all daycares in Canada?
Please leave your comments below.
Thanks for reading,
Mr. CBB
Daycare can be crazy expensive and it sill amazes me the number of unlicensed care centers there are out there. We had our daughter in one for maybe six months, but she was with a close family friend that was licensed and very cheap since she’s a good friend. That said, we hope to not have to put them in daycare for a variety of reasons.
I think parents have their own reasons as to why they do what they do with their kids and there is no wrong or right. At the end of the day.. the parent is the voice for that child.
Totally agree Mr. CBB! The parent has to what’s right for them and for the child.
Good article. My wife and I looked around for a long time to find a daycare. It is expensive, but saving money on my child’s safety is not really an option. There are many home day cares around here and I didn’t like any of them.
All I know is we will be better prepared with the knowledge we have learned.
Thanks for the nod! 😉
When I was growing up, my mom took care of me and my sisters. I’m not sure if I would want to place my child (if I ever had any!) in a daycare unless I was 100% sure about the facility. I think more regulations are definitely needed. There’s been some scary stories about daycares in BC taking on 2-3x the number of children that they are allowed to take on and even a story or two about children being “misplaced” (but later found).
I just think parents may do their homework but clearly in the undercover video so much was revealed, enough to put a scare in us.
Its a hard choice for moms (and some dads too) about whether or not to return to work after a baby. Screening day cares is a tough process. I recommend asking friends for referrals, and to always trust your instincts. They don’t call it Mothers Intuition for nothing!
I agree that also helps… did you get a chance to watch that episode of Marketplace? One parent outside was arguing with Erica for conducting the investigation saying the owners were good people. They went on to tape him moving kids from daycare to daycare with no car seats. The parents involved were shocked but went on to say they trust them. So how good is a referral if some parents are in the dark? What they think is happening might not actually be. It’s a tough call, I agree with you Mandy.
I think one reason that so few parents use a licensed day care over an unlicensed one is because many instances of “unlicensed day care” are just friends or family. My buddy uses his retired next door neighbor to watch his three kids while he and his wife work. My father-in-law watches the grandkids when my brother-in-law and his girlfriend’s schedules overlap. And my mother watched about a dozen kids over the years with no more qualification than raising 3 kids herself.
Same here when I was growing up it was my mum or my aunt etc as family was always around especially my grandmother. Cost is always a big factor but also it depends on what the parents want like in our friends case.
I know from co-workers that daycare can cost upwards of $1000 a month here in Vancouver, and sometimes it’s actually cheaper to stay at home with your kid than to go back to work and put them in daycare. I’m several years away from having to think about this myself but it sure does worry me since I know I’ll want to go back to work after I give birth, but it’s so frickin’ expensive to have kids too!
When the one mom told me she spend upwards of $80k for her kids over the years for daycare and before and after school care it really puts things into perspective for us. Lots to think about that’s for sure.
Great article here. We chose to have my wife stay home because we could not think of anything more important. Also, daycare and other expenses with my wife working basically wiped any potential income, so it was a no brainer. We don’t have much margin in our budget, are EXTREMELY thrifty, but would have it no other way. The lifesyle we live to allow her to stay home is worth it EVERY SINGL DAY. Thanks for the comprehensive write up here, it’s really something everyone should think about BEFORE having kids 🙂
I really would hate it for my kids to have to spend all that time with someone else let alone have someone else “raising” my children too I would much rather make do with alot less things like cable, cell phone etc just to say at home with the kids let alone sink all that money into care for them…. #CBB
We made the decision a long time ago to live on one income so my wife could stay at home with the kids, at least until they were both at school. Sometimes we have to tighten the belt but I wouldn’t change it for the world. Childcare would eat up so much of any second wage, it just doesn’t seem worth it for us.
My husband and I worked very hard before we had children. We both worked rotating shift work in a the same factory.By the time our daughter was born, we were within 2 years of paying off our house we built.We worked opposite shifts, so using conventional daycare didn’t really work for us.We used friends and their teenage daughters for babysitters. I quit work when my daughter was 16 months old. Back then we only had 15 weeks of maternity leave.When my EI ran out, the house was paid.
We went on to have 2 more children.I worked in my brother’s convenience store p/t around my husband’s schedule until my second child was born.Then a year later we had our third child.
We sold this house and bought a larger one.Took out another mortgage. I provided childcare in our home for neighbours.I claimed it on my income tax. I didn’t make a lot of money, but it was the same as if I was paying childcare and had gone back to work.
Whenever possible, I think people should pay down their bills where they can be managed by one income, before you start your family. The family allowance payment each month more than makes up for the added cost of a child. Kids do not cost a lot. We bought a new crib and carseat. After that we went to yardsales etc for clothes. I used cloth diapers. (the flat ones where you actually fold them yourself) If there items you want, make a list and maybe you will get them for Xmas or a baby shower.
I felt guilty at first not contributing to the family income, but many times the you can contribute more by staying home. I’d be surprised if you look back at this time and say you wished you put the kids in daycare and went back to work. The difference in money, for regular wage earners, just isn’t there.You’d be better off working around your partner’s schedule parttime, if you wanted to work.
My daughter is an ECE, she works in a daycare and has to have first aid training including infant CPR. They have to re-certify every year. They are inspected on a regular basis. There are cameras on site recording everything. If there is an incident they look over the tapes from these cameras. She had worked herself up to program supervisor so if the director is not on site she is in charge.They have regulations for all age groups and the adult/child ratio depends on the age of the child. She is also a single mom to our grandson. He’s in a home based licensed daycare, not the daycare his Mom works at. He loves it there and right now he is the oldest of 3-4 kids there. He starts JK in Sept as he will be turning 4 in Sept. Qiunn and Cloe will miss him. Daycare workers do not get paid a great deal, so his daycare is subsidized for the most part. If you want to see the regulations that daycares are to operate under you can look it up online from the provincial governments website. Or you can purchase your own copy of the Daycare Act for around $20.00. It was $19.95 when I got our daughter a copy for school back when she was in college.
Sounds likes she knows the ins and outs and went as far as to put her own child in a licensed home day care because of her knowledge. Thanks for the info!
One of the beauties of living in a small town is knowing the people who run the day care centers. We used a licensed day care run by someone I knew well and had no problems. One problem we do find here is there is only one licensed day care that takes children under 1 year of age, so you have to use a private sitter up until then. We were lucky to have a wonderful sitter who only had my daughter and her son, but many people have to use unlicensed people because there is no other choice. I would always observe, check references, and ask lots of questions. I don’t think all unlicensed places are bad. You just have to be careful about finding the right one.
That’s just it not all are bad but it’s the bad one’s who are ruining it. I just don’t know what I would do with myself if I was a daycare dad and something happened to these other kids in MY home and I wasn’t qualified, had CPR, FIrst Aid, Smoke detectors, gates, and watchful eye… there’s so much for parents to think about. Kudos to all of you.
Great post! Up until our move to Alberta last month, our kids were at a Peekaboo and it was great. Now in Alberta, the shortage of licensed centres is even worse and I dread looking for daycare. I will definitely watch the Marketplace episode.
Hi Kelly,
When you watch this episode you will be in AWE, literally!! Undercover shots, are unreal, and the parents of the kids at the one place who were transporting them with no car seats, said, they trusted them…. AFTER they found out about the undercover finds. That’s what a shortage does, put parents in a bind and they turn a blind eye, it’s human life for crying out loud.
We really lucked in without situation. It’s a lady who lives in our neighborhood who happens to he a teacher but decided to stay home after her youngest was born. Her husband is a well known principal at one of the high schools and she has CPR/criminal background. Friends of ours are paying 600/month to have their kid in daycare 2 days/week. I’ll be paying this for 4 days/week. My sister is an ECE so I have a great resource when needed. If only I could afford to have her be our childcare provider full time.
Sounds to me like you have it all planned out, good for you. Your child is worth it!
Great post, Mr. CBB. For us, me staying home was the best option, as we feared the quote that “its’ different when you’re taking care of other people’s children.” The woman who didn’t even know the right emergency number? That’s terrifying! That being said, one parent staying home isn’t always the best choice for everyone, but for us, we have such peace of mind knowing that the kids are being watched by the ones who love them the most. 🙂
If the peace of mind helps you, that’s all that matters.
While the rules vary from state to state here, we have always used an unlicensed daycare. The cost are much less expensive. However, we also did a thorough inspection of the house, called references, asked about firearms/visitors/etc. We love our daycare lady, and I don’t think that our children could get any better care than what they get now. It is like they have another grandma:)
I agree with you, it is the parent’s responsibility at the end of the day to make sure that their child is safe.
Yes, as long as you do your due diligence as a parent and you are all happy that is fine. In the marketplace episode one family did the same and lost their child when the caregiver took the children on an outing without parent permission to a home with another day care, 30 kids in total which was illegal. No one noticed when their son fell in the pool. Rules and regulations, this is what some parents are fighting for and why.
It’s really great that so many families are opting to be more frugal and have one parent stay home with the children.This is much more important than any material possession or vacation (which they won’t remember anyways) you can buy.
If more families did this, it would open up a lot more jobs.An extra benefit 🙂
Hi Kathryn,
This is how it was for me growing up and many of my mates. Our mothers stay at home and the fathers go to work, same goes with all my relatives except for a couple that are professionals with designations and it doesn’t make sense for them to quit their jobs. Other than that, mum was always home but now times have changed, I guess…. I still know plenty of moms that stay home in the UK. I don’t know what to say.
Great post you have here Mr. CBB. As parents we always want to do what’s best for our kids and try to provide everything for them that is why both parents sometimes have to work and putting the kid on a daycare center. I guess when this has to happen, you just have to choose the right center. Ask friends, read reviews, visit a couple of centers to ensure you are making the right choice.
Parents are definitely the voice of their children. They decide what’s best and what’s not, they are the ones who make the decisions. They definitely know what to do and what not to do.
When it’s time to get back to work, deciding on what to the with the kids becomes a major concern that has to be properly tackled. With the variety of options available, it is just hard to decide which one will fit their needs.