You know what the latest provincial budget did for my family? For all intents and purposes: nothing. It makes me feel this government is out of touch with the realities and struggles families are facing.
You see, my husband and I are a fairly new parents – our little guy just started into child care last March. So when our care provider handed us our 2016 tax receipt, it was a shock.
$10,575. For only 10 months of care. Only 3 days a week.
We don't have our little guy in some really fancy centre: we depend on a very lovely woman who looks after our son, out of her small apartment. We do the whirl of packing lunch every morning. And we juggle grandparents and our work schedules to make the other days happen.
We make it work, because we have to. But it’s too much.
If the $10 a Day Plan was implemented, that same scenario would cost $1379.
And we only have one kid. Some families have two or more children, and some have to count on paid child care five days a week.
In fact, other parents are forced to make pretty tough choices when it comes to whether or not they can even afford to work…because child care is sometimes just too expensive (if they can even find it). And then there are the couples who are giving up on their hopes to even have kids at all.
The lack of affordable child care is creating chaos in every corner of this province.
And the government’s big solution is to introduce 2000 new spaces? That doesn’t even keep up with the growth rate in BC. And it does nothing to make child care more affordable.
Yet somehow our government can’t see how important this is. So let’s show them!
Let’s show our friends, our colleagues, our neighbours what this inaction is costing us. Let's show our worlds how unaffordable life is without a $10aDay Plan.
I'll be posting my tax receipt photo and story.
Share your story too! Hashtag it: #10aDayPlan #TimeToChildCare
Let people see how much this neglect is costing families. Show them the faces of people who need action – whether that’s your kids, your grandkids, or anybody else you know.
Talk about what it would mean for BC kids and families to have a child care options that are affordable, accessible, and stable.
Please help me spread the word about how the child care crisis is having a real impact on BC families by sharing your child care tax receipt photos and stories with the hashtags #10aDayPlan and #TimeToChildCare on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
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