Caring for Children

Social inequality. Selective political attention. Insufficient funding and access. Caring for Children provides a comprehensive, interdisciplinary examination of the crisis in care for Canadian children and their caregivers. Couched in the language of choice, government policies on the care of Canadian children over the past decade have favoured professional, nuclear families while doing little to assist children with the greatest needs, including those from low-income, immigrant, and Aboriginal families. Analyzing the connections between services and programs, the contributors reveal how childcare, parental leave, informal care, live-in caregiver programs, and child tax benefits affect the well-being of Canadian children and their families. They draw on comparative examples from across Canada, documenting policy shifts and associated social movement responses. Caring for Children affirms the necessity of questioning political attitudes and arrangements, and asks what social movements can do to promote positive change in approaches to the care of children.