I am a strong feminist and an advocate of choice. I believe that both stay-at-home and work-out-of-home parents should be supported in their decisions.

We did not feel that day care was the right environment for our children. I took 3 months of maternity leave with my son and 6 months of maternity leave with my daughter. As the main wage earner in our family, we could not afford for me to take more time off. However, my husband was able to stay home and that was best for our family. I worked from home a lot when the kids were really little, so that I could be there to nurse them as needed. But when I did go to work, I pumped so that my husband could feed them breast milk.

While there may be certain pockets of society in Quebec that encourage parents to put their kids in day care, I don’t think that is the fault of the $7/day daycare. I see that same pressure for “socialization” on message boards that are filled primarily with Americans.

I think part of the reason that moms continue sending their older children to day care full time while on maternity leave is that they would otherwise lose the space. That is unfortunate and I think it should be changed (i.e. being able to take a “leave of absence” from the day care without giving up your spot permanently).

I think more could be done to encourage a parent to stay home (I don’t think it needs to be the mother), such as greater tax benefits for single wage families. But I am a strong advocate of the $7/day day care option.

I live in Quebec and 7$/day daycare has not given us a choice as far as returning to work is concerned, quite the opposite. It is now assumed that all women will return to work after the one year of paid maternity leave. Those of us who choose to be SAHMs are quickly labelled as lazy as there is no longer any tangible reasons to stay home (for most “mainstream” parents). The general consensus is now that children need to go to daycare in order to be socialized, put on a strict schedule and prepared for school. It is literally viewed as bad for the child to be home with mom as he will be an outcast once he gets to school since all the other children will have gone to daycare.

In fact, since daycare is so cheap most moms continue sending their older child(ren) to daycare full time while on maternity leave with their newborn. Also, most prefer the larger impersonal daycares with many different caregivers as a lot of moms do not want their child to become attached to another woman. Having multiple caregivers guarantees the child will not become attached to anyone else.

I find the situation to be quite sad and definitely not an ideal to be upheld. 7$/day daycare was not instated to help out families in need, the only objective was to have more moms going back to work sooner and paying more $$$ in income tax. If the intention was truly to help out families in need a “salary” or tax break could have been given to SAHMs, or even to all families with young children. With the current situation a tax break is given to households with two incomes and nothing for those with only one income. It is often argued that if a woman can afford to be a SAHM she doesn’t need a tax break whereas dual income families do. Yes some single income families possibly earn more than some dual income families, but a lot of SAHMs make big financial sacrifices in order to do what we feel is best for our children.

I’m not saying that all daycare is bad, however, I strongly feel it’s best, when possible, for the child to be with his mom/parents as much as possible. Everything should be done to encourage this when possible, not discourage it as is the case right now in Quebec.