The Premier of British Columbia, Christy Clark, invited myself and a few other mom bloggers in BC to a round table discussion.
The topic: issues that affect mothers in this province. Watch the video for details on how you can have your concerns addressed.
I’d love for your voice to be heard. Leave a comment below or tweet me with your questions and comments for the Premier regarding the challenges you face as a mom or dad.
Non-B.C. residents, I’d love to hear from you too:
What are some of the government programs and policies in your area that help you as a parent?
So, stay-at-home moms, working moms, soon-to-be moms, happy moms, frustrated moms, talk to me! And dads too!
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Welcome!
I'm Nat Nanton, founder of Tutu Mama. Becoming a mother has made me commit to living my greatest life. If you can relate to that, you're in the right place.Connect with me
We live in BC and have made the choice for me to homeschool the kids and be home with them. It is tough to make it on one main income. So, in addition to working with my 4 special needs kids, I also work two part-time jobs in the evenings and weekends to make ends meet. I would love to see value given to stay-at-home parents in the way of tax breaks. If my husband and I could income share as retired couples now finally can (I see that as a good thing too!), we would pay significantly less in taxes and it would allow me to not be pulled in so many different directions.
All the best tomorrow as you speak for parents in BC!
Great insight Haide! Thank you for your contribution. I'll keep you posted on the response.
Haide, thanks again for all your contributions. Swing by my Facebook page for a small summary on the event today. xo
I second Haide's thought process and fully support the concept of income sharing for families that have a parent at home to homeschool, or home due to the requirement of caring for children with special needs or the combination of the both.
Seeing more doors open for "support" for families with children with disabilities must come to the forefront of all our discussion if we want to be successful in equipping these "Little's" to become productive men & woman in society. Anything short of that, we see suicide rate's continue to increase, family breakdowns, child apprehensions and more people finding themselves homeless & unemployed as young adults.
Autism diagnosis are increasingly on the up-rise, support within the school system, tickling down from the Ministry, remain at base level; therefore support for these children and teachers remain static as well. We have restricted teachers ability to lead a 21st century classroom with Industrial Age type of delivery system & PLO requirements, leaving children behind in many areas due to our lack of foresight on how to deliver curricula and equip children.
In essence, families need more support financially, clinically and academically without the penalization of lost income, sacrificed education and support services at a delayed rate.
Suzanne, I brought up your concerns in the discussion as well as forwarded your comment in a follow-up email to her. Your voice was heard. Thank you for participating! Swing by my Facebook page for a teeny summary on today's event.
Thank you Nat for taking these thoughts forward! I would be interested in hearing the response, if any, come forward as a result of any of the posted and forwarded thoughts you presented today.
My pleasure, Suzanne! If I hear back I will be posting it on my Facebook Fan Page. You can find that here: http://on.fb.me/RWl7Ns
I echo the thoughts of income splitting between all spouses where one stays home to raise children. Homeschooling special needs kids saves the government thousands upon thousands in less paid out to public schools for Special Ed assistants or TAs etc. Why not give those families a break on the taxes, and allow income splitting?
And why can a family deduct daycare expenses from their taxes if both work, but if one of the spouses is providing that care the working spouse can’t write that off?
Give families choices, to raise their own kids or to pay someone else to do it.
Great points about the government saving money on homeschooled kids. That really helps the arguement! Swing by my Facebook page for the short summary of the event: http://on.fb.me/QEIH2u
Is there any way to begin to question our move toward subsidized daycare and all day kindergarten in the legislature? Less time with parents=weakened child-parent bonds=increased depression/anxiety/bullying. Government spending begets more government spending. Statistics in Sweden are good comparables for the road we are on in so far as long term effects of separating children as young as 18months from their parents. I agree with the first two ladies in so far as we need to look at creating incentives rather than disincentives to keep parents at home with their children.While income splitting may be one half of the equation, we need to also address why income splitting is required by so many in the first place.
Hmmm…how to summarize all this into a question for the premier? Have we truly reached a point in our society where the only solution we can think of is to throw money at existing problems…can we not look at re framing the discussion into the context of personal accountability. Get the role of child rearing out of the hands of the government and the unions and back into the hands of those who love our children best; the parents. Trust that parents know what's best for our children, and have government do what individual citizens can not; Protect our borders, create law and order, keep our infrastructure in good working order. Perhaps this would put hard earned money back into the pockets of families.
Having worked in the Vancouver Planning department I recognize the futility of one persons opinion against the machine, however any insights the premier with her experience could offer would be enlightening. I only wish I could sit with her over a cup of tea to know her own personal thoughts myself.
Enjoy your discussion tomorrow Nat! And my hats off to Kristy for doing all she can to address the concerns of the masses.
Yours kindly and sincerely,
Denise
Denise, your comment was really thought-provoking. Hopefully, for the Premier as well. 😉 Swing by my Facebook Page to check out a small summary of today's event.