Maryann Bird was frustrated that her three sons, spaced three years apart in age, could not be cared for in the same centre.
The two year old was in nursery school, the five year old was in a different child-care centre while the eight year old was in school and an after-school day care. None of the brothers were together to look out for each other or to be a family during the day.
That angered Bird and turned her into an advocate for child care that makes sense for families. She is now executive director of the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada.
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Personal stories
She said changes can happen only through the power of personal stories like hers and the mothers who can’t find a centre to take their child with cerebral palsy or that will take a child for busy seasonal harvest and seeding times.
Her association works to debunk myths such as women aren’t serious about working or that grandmothers can look after the kids.
“We have to convince people that family needs have changed,” she said.
“It ain’t the way it was 30 years ago. Farms have changed and it isn’t going to go back. Seventy percent of Canadian women are working … and today grandparents are either working or living a long ways away.”
National plan
Bird, who was speaking at a conference that drew together rural child-care providers from Manitoba and Saskatchewan, said a 2002 national study backs up her views. She said the study by her group and the Canadian Child Care Federation showed 90 percent of the 1,200 people interviewed think Canada should have a nationally co-ordinated child-care plan that ensures all children have access to quality care regardless of family income, disability, race or region.
The study, which is accurate to within plus or minus 2.9 percent at the 95 percent confidence level, also showed that two-thirds of Canadians see child care as a development service that helps children grow emotionally and socially. Only 17 percent see it as babysitting. It is also seen as an essential service to allow people to work.
Almost three-quarters of Canadians believe that the benefits of providing quality child care outweigh the costs. Yet most agree the cost of child care is mainly borne by parents and that governments should be picking up more of the financial burden.
