A family’s struggle: desperately seeking daycare

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This article was published 24/01/2015 (3959 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Most people set up Kijiji alerts for used Mustangs or antique dining-room sets.

Jamie Slight set one up for daycare.

Slight started with the traditional route, signing up for the online daycare registry when she was four months pregnant. After baby Vera was born, after Slight’s brain had cleared from the first couple months of motherhood, she started calling local centres to see where she stood. Slight was told wait lists were four years long and infant spots were mostly reserved for siblings of children already in care. A for-profit Montessori would have cost her and her husband $1,400 a month, which was more than their mortgage and a no-go.

With her back-to-work date approaching and the province’s central registry coming up empty after 15 months, Slight was getting desperate.

“At that point (Vera) was 10 months old, and I was going back no matter what,” said Slight, a Grade 7 teacher. “I was just hoping I wouldn’t have to leave her at the bus depot.”

At one point, the couple was considering buying a lot on at the very edge of Charleswood. On a whim, Slight called a daycare next door in Headingley, saying she’d just bought a lot and wondering whether a spot was available. Daycare staff said she’d have to prove she lived in the rural municipality.

“I thought ‘I just lied to get a spot in daycare,’ ” laughed Slight.

So, Slight turned to the popular online classified site.

Anytime anyone posted a Kijiji ad for a full-time daycare spot in Charleswood, Slight got an email alert. After a couple of misses, she scored a spot in an unlicensed home daycare run by an experienced woman.

“I was like, ‘How much money do you need to save this spot?’ ” said Slight.

Though Slight had some initial trepidation, the home daycare turned out to be wonderful, with a real family atmosphere and plenty of nice touches, such as daily photo texts sent to parents. Shy Vera loves it. At $25 a day, it’s also very reasonable.

The family is still on the central waiting list, hoping a spot in a centre attached to an area school will come up in time for two-year-old Vera to start kindergarten in a few years.

Slight said she’d like to learn more about the idea of universal daycare, but says she’s skeptical about such a big, costly promise when there simply aren’t enough spaces and enough trained staff to meet the current demand.

In the meantime, she wishes the centralized registry lived up to its billing.

Instead, many daycares keep their own paper list, and the registry rarely seems to trump parental wheeling and dealing to secure a spot.

And, like nearly every parent the Free Press spoke to, Slight wishes there were simply more spaces.

The cherubicly cute Vera was born prematurely.

Even that experience was easier than finding daycare, said Slight.

“It was the most stressful part of being on mat leave,” she said.

— Mary Agnes Welch