Parents who need an hour or two to run errands or go to a doctor’s appointment are encouraged to leave their little ones at Burnaby Family Life’s occasional child-care centre.
The program, which started about two years ago, offers parents access to flexible child care Monday to Saturday. This isn’t full-time care – this is a program that takes little ones for a few hours here and there, according to director Michelle Chien.
“It’s meant for parents who use it occasionally. So for people who have a doctor’s appointment and they don’t want to bring their kids, (or) they have a job interview or things come up and they can’t bring their kids along – even grocery shopping or cleaning the house,” she told the NOW.
Chien would like to see more parents take advantage of the service.
To sign up, parents have to buy a membership and then they can book their kids in to the centre as needed, as long as 48 hours’ notice is given. The centre has space for 16 kids, but Chien says it’s never full.
“We probably have, I would say, about 20 kids that use it quite regularly right now at this point, and of course we would like to have more,” she said.
Annual memberships are $50 and child care is $15 per hour per child, and because it is an occasional use service, kids are limited to 40 hours per month.
Chien admits it is an expensive service, but there are packages parents can buy that lessen the hourly rate. Right now, parents can get a 20-hour pass for $280 ($14 per hour) or a 40-hour pass for $510 ($12.75 per hour).
“We are in a licensed child-care facility, we have ECEs (early childhood educators) or EC assistants working, and everybody is qualified,” she said. “We always have an ECE and then the second person, depending on the ratio, will be either another ECE or an EC assistant.”
And there is always two people working at a time, no matter the number of kids, she added.
“In a licensed facility, there is that comfort for me,” she said.
Chien started the program after her second child was born. She was looking for part-time work and needed part-time child care. She hopes by getting the word out that the service exists, she’ll see more parents sign their kids up and, ultimately, make the program more viable.
“For a lot of families, they don’t need care full time. They don’t. They have family, they can work part time or they can arrange shifts or their spouses can cover some of the time. So they don’t need care full time, but this gives them the opportunity to do some of the things they need to do occasionally,” she said.
The Burnaby Family Life occasional child-care centre, located at 6140 McKercher Ave., is open Monday to Saturday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. It’s open to kids 18 months to five years (kids phase out on their sixth birthday) and you don’t have to be a Burnaby resident. To sign up to click here.
