Strollerderby

Fascinating! Here's my experience, in Montreal, Quebec. My son is 19 month-old and he's been going to daycare for almost one year.

-Daycares are government-subsidized, and cost parents $7 a day (the government pays between $50 and $60 a day for each spot). Subsidized spots are not available for every kid though, so there's also a private system where sky is the limit.

-This includes lunch, two snacks, milk and/or formula, while breakfast is optional. Each pre-school type place has a chef, and the food is, if not remarkable, at least very tasty, varied and healthy.

-The "teachers" all have specialized degrees (I find them very knowledgeable, on top of being very patient and caring), and really work with you as team to try and resolve whatever issue you have with your child, even if it's not that related to the daycare (not sleeping through the night in our case)

-We pay $1.50 more each day for diapers, wipes, sunscreen, tissues, etc., so we don't need to bring our own. They throw out the diapers themselves however!

- My son has a little locker like in school, where he does have all his things, from extra clothes to sheets and blankies, etc. I also bring it back home on Friday to wash it.

-We also have a log book, that includes the number of bowel movements he's had, which at first I thought was off-putting but is actually quite helpful...

-I can also read the highlights of his day, which is sometimes boring, but occasionally strangely poetic. One day this week it said: "Listened to sounds. Quickly lost interest in dancing, and went to fetch himself toys." Other classics include: "Didn't want to stop playing peekaboo and laughing at naptime," and "Gave his crying friend a big, big, hug."

-The log book additionally has little icons representing all the activities they've done during the day, from crafts to puzzles to walks in the park.

I believe such an inexpensive, great daycare system combined with year-long, paid mat leaves have a great influence on the fact that over 90% of Canadian women return to work within two years after the birth of a child... We do have very high tax rates, though.

MarieEve, that sounds like Heaven.

Yes, that does sound nice!

My son has been in a Tokyo daycare since he was 5 months old (now 15 months). While there are many rules that I don't understand (is it really necessary to ban onsies?) otherwise I have found it fantastic.

We have a log book, and everyday I tell them when he slept, when he ate, and whether he did a No. 2, and they tell me the same. Temperature is taken at home before daycare, and again when he reaches daycare. If the temp. is above 37.9 he cannot go to daycare.

They started toilet training him as soon as he could stand (9 months).

By the way, the reason they return the dirty diapers is you need a permit as a biological waste disposer before you can throw away that many diapers. Throwing away from home is fine though, so they return them to you to dispose yourself.

I think I need to move to Montreal. That sounds wonderful. We pay $260/week for daycare here in Maryland. I know that isn't a lot for some people, but it is for us.