Canada Last: Insult to 3rd World Kids
UNICEF should be looking out for the human rights of kids in the developing world , not inflaming an international "Mommy War".
As an advocate I know dealing with any government is a hard fight, but adding more partisan political partners such as Unicef makes it even worse.
Canada, Ireland and Australia have all recently faced criticism for coming in at the bottom of Unicef's recent League Table on Early Childhood Education and Care in Advanced Countries. This is a distraction from the fact that these are not third world states and our kids enjoy an extremely high standard of care. Unicef has no business in the ongoing domestic childcare dispute here in Canada, or for that matter in any other countries with a growing economy.
Unicef was created to help starving children live, and learn: to help children grow up to make their country better. Those commercials you see on T.V. where "for pennies a day, this child can live and go to school", are what Unicef is supposed to be about.
Instead we have reports from Unicef quoting out-sourced data, research from Martha Friendly and pushing a world-wide political agenda on childcare in the name of child poverty. Shame on Unicef for dictating in a report on how long parents should be at home with there kids, forcing pre-school, and daycare through peer pressure from a well respected organization.
Many parents in Canada, as in Australia, and many other countries use daycare: non-profit, for profit, at home, neighbourhood care etc… and each of those parents should be equally respected for there choices. The problem is in many countries they are not, and they are pushed into what is known in the United States as the "Mommy Wars". The "Mommy Wars" are where the media pits one paid working parent against an unpaid working parent at home the whole time taping these parents judging each others choices. It would lead you to believe all parents feel this way.
Honestly, the majority of parents are not judging other's choices; they are merely asking "please respect my choice and equal to yours". It is only the media and governments who are judging our choices and selling us out for ratings and votes.
Sara Landriault is a stay at home mom (sic) of 3 beautiful girls. In raising her children, she has grown with them and has learned as much from her daughters as she has taught them. Sara finds arguments between daycare vs stay at home moms very disrespectful to all involved. An advocate for equal respect and financial rights for parents who choose daycare, staying at home and everything in between, Sara is President/Founder of the National Family Childcare Association in Canada.
Sara's blog is at http://www.fundthechild.blogspot.com/
sally.rose
January 30, 2009 at 3:31 am
Does Unicef have a role in the 1st World? Sometimes
Unicef may have some role to play in keeping developed nations on their toes with regard to making sure all their citizens are living in first world conditions. For instance, here in Australia, the infant mortality rate for Indigenous Australians is much higher than the average. So in some cases we have a scenario where groups like Unicef, World Vision and Amnesty International Australia are intervening with good reason within our own borders.
Nevertheless you are very right to point out that the plethora of headlines which have swept the world stating "Canada and Ireland ranked last" or "Australia ranked 2nd last" are emotive and misleading. Last or second last out of what – the top 10! That's still a pretty good position to be in. In that regard Unicef's intervention in this instance has been distracting.
However, we shouldn't be too proud to learn from countries who are doing it better. No matter how annoyed they've got about coming in second from the bottom, I haven't heard anyone prepared to argue that Sweden's childcare system should have been ranked lower than Australia's!