“I’m a social worker, it’s a job that’s been a bit harder since I had my son, but I’ve known since I was a kid that it’s what I wanted to do. I was temporarily laid off from my job for 3 months because of the pandemic. In May our municipality redeployed workers to long term care homes, and those who weren’t able to take on that work were laid off. I had only been back from 18 months of maternity leave for a matter of weeks, and with medically fragile family members, I simply couldn’t take the risk.
On one hand each day I spent home with my child felt like a blessing, on the other hand, each day spent at home brought more worry and concern. Would I have a job to go back to? Would my husband and I be able to afford child care if/when I went back to work? Would we even feel safe sending our son back to child care? I felt so much confusion and uncertainty.
Three months later I was called back to work, which by chance, happened on the same day we got a deadline from our child care to decide if we would be sending our son back.
After much deliberation, we had already said, “no, we won’t be coming back” to our child care centre; but within the hour I got the call to return to work. Even though I’m working from home, my employer has a condition that I must have child care arrangements to return, and I knew that if I didn’t return at that point, I would be ineligible for CERB. I had to make a decision incredibly quickly, while standing in a grocery store, and I really felt like I had no choice. An hour after telling our child care not to hold our spot, I had to call them back and say, “I need him to start next week”.
However, as I was off work for so long, we could only afford to send him part time. We are really thankful to have a child care centre that is taking great precautions to ensure our child’s health and development is prioritized, and it’s reassuring to me that the ratio in his class is low, but I still worry.
Because we could only afford part time care, for two days a week my busy boy is home with me as I work from home full-time. Our days are filled with lots of independent play, coloring, singing songs, and a nice long nap for baby so mama can get work done. I feel real pressure trying to do two jobs at once, and worrying about doing both well. I also feel incredibly guilty if my son is watching tv so I can take a call. I’m doing the best I can in the face of some pretty impossible choices, and we are taking things one day at a time.
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We know that throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, families have had to make incredibly difficult, and often, unfair decisions. Like Sabrina, we often aren’t given a ‘real choice’. We know it doesn’t have to be this way. A universal, publicly-funded, accessible, affordable, inclusive child care system would create the conditions where families can make real choices about the care and education of their young children. It would create opportunities for all children to experience a quality early learning environment where educators are respected, valued, and well-paid. The time is now.
Share your story. Sign the petition. Rise up for child care. https://www.childcareontario.org/risingup