The Day Care Band-Aid

According to Cambridge Dictionary, the definition of band-aid solution is “a temporary solution that does not deal with the cause of a problem.”

Instead of admitting that our Canadian family structure is broken and coming up with solutions to repair it, our governments have chosen to hide their years of mismanagement behind expensive and hurtful band-aid solutions. They also have the audacity to articulate it in such a fashion as to suggest that they are providing good solutions.

The emphasis governments put on state-controlled day care is one such band-aid and we don’t know how far they intend to go with this. Yes, a few families will honestly require day care, but surveys indicate that the vast majority – in the range of 75%-80% – would choose parental care if they could afford it. That is, of course, if the state doesn’t utterly usurp that right from parents, as recently happened in Quebec. Yes, in Quebec, with its expensive and glorified tax funded day care program, which some people say should be the trend setter for other provinces, a judge has ruled in favour of state day care over parental care:

QUEBEC, May 6, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Quebec judge has ordered a three-year-old and a five-year-old to attend state-funded day care following claims that the children lacked proper “socialization”….

[T]he court refused to hear the parents’ expert witness and dismissed the testimony of the family doctor…. In her ruling, Judge Bernier claimed the family doctor’s testimony lacked objectivity and was “full of bias” owing to his relationship with the parents.

This certainly begs the question. What good family doctor wouldn’t have a relationship with the parents? I encourage you to read the full article here.

The whole concept of day care was not because children were found to be lacking proper ‘socialization’. Rather, it was because too many parents no longer found it possible to meet the financial needs of their family on a single income. In far too many Canadian households, both parents have found it necessary to work outside the home, simply to make ends meet. The government, instead of recognizing and addressing this root injustice, is telling families “we’ll help you out by having someone else take care of your children.” Does anyone else see the madness?!?

CHP Canada’s Family Care Allowance would enable parents to provide the best care for their children: parent care. Could a paid employee possibly offer the same quality of child-centred care that the child’s own parent provides? Canadian parents must be allowed the choice whether to care for their own children or place them in institutional care; right now, no governments offer this option to Canadian parents.

For a judge to mandate institutional child-care to a family that is healthy and functional is evidence of how easy it is for the State to lose touch with reality and the real issues. Universal day care should not ever be considered a part of our Canadian dream, because it is simply putting a band-aid on the problem.

‘Universal’ parent care is what Canadians should strive for; and that is where the Christian Heritage Party would lead this country.