Comment:

Table 7 indicates that the numbers of children receiving paid care services such as those offered by day care centres is relatively small when compared to those for whom unpaid arrangements have been made; and that those actually in day care centres is extremely small when compared to the total numbers of children of working mothers. This supports the idea that women make do with the best day care arrangements they can find and afford. It should also be noted that as the availability of day care centres improves, the percentage of children cared for in this way also increases. The yearly report from the National Day Care Information Centre of Health and Welfare Canada indicates that since 1973, the percentage of children of working mothers, who are in the 3-5 age group and who are cared for in day care centres or registered family care services, has increased from 5% to 16%. The corresponding increase for children under 3 years has been from 2% in 1973 to about 5% in 1977.

When examining Table 7, the data suggest some interesting corollaries:

- as more and more women go out to work, there will be fewer and fewer women still at home who can provide the unpaid care arrangements given by "relatives, neighbours and friends". What does the working mother do when all her relatives, neighbours and friends go out to work and she has no day care services?

- the numbers of children who care for themselves is truly remarkable. These figures suggest that at least one in three children of working mothers are on their own at lunch time and after school. As the numbers of working mothers increase, the numbers of these "latch-key" children will also increase. And so does the potential for community conflict.

- the numbers of children who are cared for by brothers and sisters under 16 years of age suggests that these older siblings may not be attending school full or even part-time so that they can care for the youngest children while mother works. What percentage of older brothers and sisters are not in attendance at school for these reasons?

- the figures under work-oriented arrangements suggest that these mothers all have part-time jobs since the children would only be in school, at the most, for 7 hours per day. What do these women do on school holidays, or on Professional Development Days?

- the most intriguing decline occurs in the percentage of children cared for by a person over 15 years of age living in the child's home. Since this person is most often the father, the figures suggest that the father's involvement in providing day care for his children has decreased recently, i.e. from 41% to 10% for pre-school children and from 55% to 16% for school-age children. This decline is no doubt assisted by the increasing rate of family break-ups.