Last week, the Journal asked a group of students if Queen’s should have an after-hours childcare service. One young man responded, “No. I don’t think enough kids at Queen’s would ever face that problem.” ‘That problem’ is just the issue at hand and it’s attitudes like those that have left childcare on Queen’s campus, in the Kingston community and across Canada in such short supply.
I’m not the only student parent at Queen’s. There are a lot of us. You just don’t see us in our role as parents that often. There is likely at least one of us in each of your classes. For the most part we aren’t that different from you. We read the same material, we perform the same experiments and we stress out over the same deadlines and the same exams. But we are different in many ways. First of all, we made different life choices, but that almost goes without saying. What are the differences as far as university is concerned? Getting to class, in general, is much more difficult. We have to first of all try to find childcare in a city, province and nation where there are long waiting lists. Then we have to make sure that we can afford childcare. When I was doing my undergraduate degree at Queen’s I was paying between $700 and $1,000 per month in childcare costs alone and that was only for one of my children on a part-time basis. Infant childcare will run you about $50 per day. OSAP doesn’t even begin to touch these costs.
So if you’re lucky, you’ve found a spot and a subsidy for some of the fees. Now to tackle getting to class. You have to get yourself and your kid(s) ready to go and to the daycare on time for your 8:30 a.m. class or maybe it is a 7:00 p.m. class and you have to feed them dinner and get some activities and their pyjamas together because you are taking them to after-hours childcare. We student parents become masters of time management and logistics. When class finishes at 10 p.m. you have to pick up their sleeping bodies and get them home to bed. Then your studying begins. If you’re the parent of an older child, you will likely be trying to work their social and extracurricular activities into your plans too. Did I mention what happens when reading week comes and you’re planning on making some good headway on that term paper and instead your kids have chicken pox at home? Not quite the same experience as the trip to the south your colleagues are making.
Being a parent and a student is a lot of work. Student parents have to have a lot of determination and willpower. I should note that the above scenario would be much different if your child was disabled or if you yourself had other ability needs. It would certainly make things easier for us if our colleagues at school, and the school, itself didn’t create an atmosphere that saw our children as ‘problems.’ For 10 years, the AMS ran an after-hours childcare program. This was a particularly socially just endeavour for this corporately minded organization. Ten years ago your fellow students recognized the need for this program. What is the need? Accessibility. Higher education shouldn’t be only for those who can afford it, or for those without ‘that problem’. Safe, affordable and licensed childcare during regular hours and after hours increases the accessibility of our school and higher education. Providing evening classes increases the accessibility of our school. It allows people to attend university on a part-time basis while working during the day. Fast forward to your graduate years or to your new faculty experience, and it’s not as accessible. How are we going to attract and keep the brightest and best graduate students and faculty if we can’t support their lives outside of Queen’s?
For many people, children are a wonderful reality—not a ‘problem.’ They may be a reality for you one day. How do you want your experience as a parent to be? Do you want it made easier by an understanding academic cohort, institution or workplace? Or do you want to have to fight for the right not to have your children considered a ‘problem’?
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