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Daycare

Category: Family & Pets

Introduction

Daycares are not to be confused with babysitting services.  Daycares provide child care services on an ongoing basis during specific periods, usually during normal business hours.  A range of services can be offered by daycares, such as education, child development, discipline and preschooling.

In Canada, daycares are either private or government-subsidized.

Facts & Statistics

• Across Canada, only 6.5% of two-parent families with at least one working parent use a formal daycare service.
• The nationwide daycare workforce is 95% female.
• Most daycare employees are low-paid, making minimum wage, and paid hourly.

For or Against Daycares?

Some child development specialists advocate that professional child caring should not substitute for parental care.  However, a number of studies have suggested that good daycare service for non-infants does not harm, and can actually complement good parenting.  In fact, daycares can expose children to an alternative environment and break their routine home surrounding.  One of the greatest advantages of daycares is in placing children around others of the same age group, thus forcing them to learn how to interact with one another.  Of course, it can be argued that circumstances such as those can cause emotional harm in the form of attachment.  Some studies have quoted early grade teachers stating that children from daycares were more disobedient and aggressive, yet scored higher grades on the average in certain subjects.

Useful Links

• Childcare Resource and Research Unit (CRRU):  A Policy and research oriented facility that focuses on early childhood education, child care and family policy in Canada and internationally.

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Day care".  Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.