BC Council for Families

by Marilee Peters
Director of Communications, BC Council for Families

A recent spate of academic studies and newspaper columns is reviving the ever-simmering debate over the pros and cons of childcare. Is child care good for young children, or is full time care from a parent better? It's a question that won't go away -- possibly because there is still so much to learn about early human development, or because development of sound childcare policy is so urgently needed, or just maybe because Canadian parents remain hopelessly conflicted over childcare, and over the opposition between the economic necessity for working mothers and our culturally idealized picture of the "good mother" as a stay-at-home parent.

It's on this last aspect that the latest entrants into the debating forum are weighing in: Globe and Mail columnist Leah MacLaren and reporter Janet Bagnall (writing in the Vancouver Province) earlier this month each published columns quoting recent studies which show that young children are not adversely affected by childcare. As MacLaren points out " other factors, such as emotional stability and quality of home life, were much more important [than child care] in determining early childhood development."

MacLaren concludes, "So do yourself and society a favour, moms: Ignore the guilt, buy a new suit and get back to work as soon as you want to." If only it was that easy. This glib attitude is reflected in both articles' headlines ("Ditch the Guilt, Working Moms", advises the Globe and Mail, while the Vancouver Province orders us to "Drop the Guilt Trip"). Yet it's precisely because childcare continues to be seen as a private, family issue that it remains such an area of contention. Families need policies, programs and services that support them to raise healthy, happy children -- and for many families, that must include universal access to high quality child care for their young children. Until then, parents won't be able to just "ditch the guilt."