Families need more support for basic needs to childcare

Governments, both provincial and federal, can talk all they want about family values but the reality is — they don’t seem to really get it.
Parents struggle day to day to make ends meet and when a single parent is the sole bread winner for a family, it is even more of a struggle — both financially and just to keep it all together. The traditional family is as dead as a Velociraptor (unless you’ve seen Jurassic World). Husband and wife teams are no longer the old school norm. Single moms, dads, grandparents or other family members raise families and same sex couples (and/or single too) are taking over the reins, as the new parental unit.
It’s 2015 — why are governments living in 1955? The Cleavers and Father Knows Best are laughing stocks, when it comes to describing today’s family. The Brady Bunch is more of a representation of how blended families are becoming more and more prevalent in today’s divorced culture. The vow, “until death do us part,” is no longer acceptable, as moms and dads are committed to keeping the family alive but not necessarily spending the rest of their life with a once chosen significant other. It doesn’t mean it’s right. It’s just a sad fact and it’s downright sickening, when you think about the statistics. A committed relationship should be placed smack dab in the middle of an exhibit in Jurassic World, under natural extinction.
So, parents have kids, who need to be taken care of. School helps with a large portion of that during the school year, but what about summer?
Kids need to either stay home with a parent(s) or be shipped off to a summer camp or summer program. Parents, most times both, are busy working full-time to pay the bills to help keep their families afloat.
There is subsidy available for those parents who need a helping hand but why should parents have other people watch over their kids over the summer, when parents could in fact, do so themselves. The system is messed up. Always has been. Family values, have again been thrown out the window. But, nobody is talking about it. With all the talk about family values, why then do parents have to rely on outside caregivers to raise kids in today’s society and since the dawn of employment? Kids are at school and at summer programs more than they are with their parent(s). People will say, “It’s always been like that and we persevered and turned out OK.” Really? Just because something has been done for eons doesn’t mean it is the best plan for the long-run. Many parents, no doubt, would rather be at home raising their kids but can’t because of the state of the world, as we know it. Let’s face it, many things in this so-called civilized society are flawed and need to be re-evaluated for our collective future existence.
Parents pay out money to have someone else look after their kids for the summer for sometimes nine hours a day. Again, subsidy luckily helps out with this. During the school year, taxes pay for teachers to take care of kids for many hours a day — while parents head to jobs, good or bad. Many societies, as a community or family, help in child-rearing duties collectively. Some societies don’t send kids off to school, or summer camps or daycare — rather they understand the importance of parents raising their own kid(s). Sure, kids need to have a social life. And, home schooling isn’t the only answer. Talk on the issue needs to be encouraged to devise a plan to help parents spend more time with their very own children.
Perhaps governments, both provincially and federally, could add this topic to the drawing board during and after the fall election. Something needs to be done to keep the “family” sustainable in today’s expensive to live society (expenses are on the rise) — from basic needs to childcare. This week the feds strategically delivered an increase to Universal Child Care Benefits, which was great news for parents but could have been delivered years ago, rather than during the summer before an election. Another scheme?

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