Sasha, Mark and myself have all been sicky to some degree this past week...runny noses are now almost subsided...the fog is starting to clear...Sasha has been booked for the deflux procedure on March 14th. If all goes well she'll be off the antibiotics and on the road to reflux recovery within a month of the procedure! yeah :)
In the past week tooth number 3 & 4 have finally cut through and are quite visible now. Soon her two front teeth will be in full view. (hey, when do they sing "all i want for xmas is my 2 front teeth"?)
Sasha is going to attend her first rally on Tuesday in defence of child care. Though it would be great to go to the large one in Victoria, we're going to hang with Gilly and Merlin at the rally in Vancouver at city hall. First time Gilly and I really hung out was many years ago on a journey for another rally at the legislature...seems there's much need for showing a collective voice to make a point in our 'democracy'! Good times ;)
Seriously...when it comes to child care I know countless families who have had a struggle to find quality, affordable and convenient choices when it comes to care for their children. Many folks don't have the financial resources to stay home or hire a nanny, or the extended family network to provide a lot of choice.
It may be great to get that $100 a month, but in my mind it makes far more sense for our tax dollars to be invested in providing a universal child care system. Who can afford the care they need on this money?! (and we're taxed on something we pay with our taxes?!!)
The people who commit themselves to taking care of our children also deserve to be paid respectably for their work...especially as we know that the first handful of years are the most important stage of our development! There should be quality training for those who seek to care for kids as their profession, and standards parents can rely on.
And most importantly - every child deserves a healthy start in life. Research has proven how important the first few years really are. Since our society is not structured around a 9-5 world anymore, there needs to be flexible options for families to provide the best care for their kids.
Enough of my soapboxing...but please contact your local MLA, MP, and city councilor and share your story. Everyone knows someone with a nightmare child care ordeal...let's help provide the structure necessary for a generation who finally won't have this stress...hopefully our kids! (not our grandkids!) We benefited from a generation who invested in a universal public education system (though there is a lot of room for improvement here...but that's another soapbox for another day...) and now it's our turn to help shape the continued effort to improve our society. Isn't that what an educated, wealthy and compassionate society does?
If you want more information on what's happening with child care advocacy, research or government policy, and what you can do to make a difference, I highly recommend you check out one of the following links:
Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada - www.childcareadvocacy.ca
Coalition of Child Care Advocates BC - www.cccabc.bc.ca
First Call BC Child & Youth Advocacy Coalition - www.firstcallbc.org
BCGEU Child Care Campaign - www.bcgeu.ca/campaigns/child_care
-this site is loaded with materials and links to help you take action
Here's a couple more pics of my cutie who keeps me inspired to stay active and informed...
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