Respite Childcare: How can I plan to take a break?

The military lifestyle creates additional challenges for parents, such as finding someone to care for your child when you're new to the community or looking for support during a deployment. Parents benefit from taking a break once in a while to recharge their energy. This section provides resources to help you with respite childcare.

Choosing Respite Care

Check with the MFRC for Casual Childcare and Deployment Childcare. These programs are designed to support families dealing with unique military lifestyle issues.

If you're looking for a private caregiver to hire, you can consult these sources for general information about different types of care and hiring an in-home caregiver:
 
http://www.childcarevictoria.org/resources_articles_multilingual.html
These brochures are available in French and in other languages.
 
http://www.healthlinkbc.ca/kbase/topic/special/aa43308/sec2.htm
This link provides a description about the different types of caregivers that may be used in time of emergency such as nannies, au pairs, babysitters and home support workers who can provide childcare relief for children of all ages, as well as assist with home making.
 
Important note: there are no regulating bodiesfor in home care provided by nannies, au pairs, babysitters and home support workers or any other childcare provider hired privately. Please note that the word “licensed” for privately home care agencies refers to their business license and not theChild Care Licensing Regulation office branch.
 
Information you should know if you are hiring privately.  
When you are hiring privately and not via an agency you are considered to be a formal employer and will need to ensure that you are complying with the BC labour standards. Consult the following websites for more information:
 
For individual income tax enquiries contact the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca (CRA) 1 800 959-8281

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