by Vanessa Alexander – 6 December 2013

Unlicensed childcare: It sounds scary, right? That’s what the media and the Ontario Government would have you believe. In fact, unlicensed childcare is all childcare that happens when there is no license: when your neighbour looks after your daughter while you run to the store, or when grandparents look after grandchildren for the weekend. It’s not scary, or it doesn’t have to be, because this means your childcare will be as good as the decisions you make as parents. If you give your children to a neighbour who looks after a few kids for income, you make a decision based on what you know. You know that they are unlicensed, but you know that you can trust them with your children. That’s not a scary decision. The scary part is when you have absolutely no childcare options.

This is what is unaddressed in the Childcare Modernization Act , a new piece of legislation tabled this past week by Ontario’s Liberal government. Unlicensed childcare is not the problem; the problem is a serious lack of affordable, high quality childcare options. The deaths of three children in unlicensed childcare facilities in the GTA over the last year have been waved around on a banner for months, despite the fact that no causes of death were identified, let alone a clear link between the deaths and negligence on the part of the caregivers. Still this threat is being hung over the heads of parents who might consider putting their children in unlicensed care.

Many parents have opted for unlicensed options rather than a licensed childcare provider, and for many this was an informed choice they felt suited their families, given the lack of affordable daycare. I am one of those parents. Together with other parents, I formed a childcare cooperative where rather than exchanging money, we exchange our time. For every hour I spend caring for children in the coop (at a ratio of 2 children per 1 adult) I earn an hour of care for my child from another parent in the coop. I don’t have enough time to work full-time, but I manage part-time work in addition to ensuring that my child has quality childcare when I’m not there.

With licensed care available for only 22 percent of children under the age of five in Canada, unlicensed care is, out of necessity, a common choice for parents. Unlicensed caregivers are only checked when there’s a complaint so we know very little about the unlicensed care going on across the country. The only time we learn anything is when something goes terribly wrong, providing a very warped picture of this type of care.

The Ontario provincial government has been quick to write new legislation in response to an outcry from the media and childcare experts who supposedly fear for the well-being of our children, but in fact the well-being of our children, at least for now, lies squarely in the hands of us parents and the decisions we make.  It’s time to start taking responsibility for ourselves. If the Ontario Government is responding to a childcare crisis by restricting the childcare currently available rather than helping to create more affordable, high quality childcare options, we are going to have to respond ourselves by forming cooperatives and supporting trusted unlicensed caregivers. So long as the various levels of government refuse to create a universal childcare program, unlicensed childcare is not a problem but a solution.

To learn more about how to create parenting cooperatives or about Little Lemurs Parenting Collective, contact community.parenting.movement[at]gmail.com.

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