Day care isn’t a sustainable solution
Childcare centres are the petrol stations of the 21st century, and much like petrol, the childcare sector is not a sustainable solution to our collective issues. In Australia childcare centres are a band aid solution to a much bigger problem. We fix the bigger issue we solve the systematic issues present in the childcare sector. That solution isn’t better regulation, treatment or pay for those who staff these centres. It’s making a lucrative sector a last resort for investors and parent’s alike. It’s tearing down a multimillion dollar industry that has been allowed to run wild.
Ok better regulation would help, but better regulation doesn’t ban smart watches because someone thinks it could be used in criminal activity against children. Better regulation looks like a less bureaucratic, more structured approach that creates a safer, smarter environment for children and educators. Better regulation is actually helpful to staff, not actively pushing staff out. The fact is that our conditions of employment under the national law are unsafe for staff and children. Ratio will always make workplace health and safety a nightmare under the current laws. You can’t regulate a sector that has run itself rampant for so long without pushback nor can you push the wrong people.
Respect your educators, we’re a sector that has in recent years been victimised for the actions of a few. As others have recently put it, we are all now potential pretors and so much for all the work we’ve been doing to professionalize the industry. If you treat people like criminals than they will become the criminals you think they are in one way or another. Educators are stretched thin, overworked, underpaid and frankly sick of it. Paying us appropriately for the work we do won’t fix the issues either, a pay rise gender undervaluation or otherwise, is just another bandaid solution to the bigger issue.
The facts are that qualified and experienced educators are leaving this field in droves and there’s not enough new staff coming in to fill the void, let alone serve a growing sector. A pay rise won’t fix that, nor will fixing ratios, or the regulations to actually benefit staff on the floor. A combination of all three, maybe but you can’t pay staff appropriate compensation without costing parents a fortune. You can’t regulate a poorly paid, poorly respected and very volatile industry without punishing those most most at risk.
So why do we need childcare? To care for the children of working parents. To provide children of working parents a safe place to play whilst their parents bring in an income. To meet the needs of children whilst parents work. Yes childcare has some advantages, it forces more peer to peer engagement and interactions with adults other than immediate family. Educators are trained to identify, communicate and support families who’s child may require additional assistance to meet their potential and educate children to an extent. But the primary function of long hours childcare is child care. Lets look at the bigger issue, parents have to work, most households need two incomes to survive.
What do we do instead of childcare, find ways to make it possible for parents to stay home with children without loosing the income that they need. Make working from home accessible to young families, instead of subsiding childcare providers, subsidise parents who stay home and don’t punish them for doing so. Community kindy gardens can and should still be encouraged to the same degree that they are now, as these are greatly beneficial for the year before they start school. Make childcare unappealing, and allow the sector to collapse. Then rebuild Long hours daycare as a last resort for extremely disadvantaged children and keep it that way. Or better yet make the minimum wage liveable for a single income family. Sorry that’s wishful thinking. I’m not saying we need to go back to the 50’s women should still be able to manage kids and a respected career, but long hours daycare centres aren’t the solution for that.
Activty of the week,
Water dropper painting is a great way of exploring colour mixing, hand eye coordination and fine motor skills. You may even get some nice artwork for your fridge out of it.
You will need
Food colouring
Water
Butchers’s paper preferably (paper towel if you cant find it)
Containers
Pipettes
Mix 1 part food colouring to 10 parts water and mix until even. Place your paper on a tray and show your child how to take the coloured water up into the pipette. Encourage your child to use the pipette to drop the coloured water onto the paper. it should result in a tie dye patten forming across that paper. I recommend using multiple colures and watching them melt together.