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Assignment #1: Reflection on Direct Writing Assignment #1

Katelyn D’Souza 500910114

Department of Early Childhood Studies, Ryerson University

CYC101: Child and Youth Care

Juanita Stephen,

22nd, February 2021

Running head: REFLECTION 2

Baby sitting is a common job for people to partake in due to the large number of children

who need care. Many teenagers start babysitting to gain exposure into the workforce as well as

make money to support their financial needs. In Ontario, the legal age for an individual to start

taking care of young children is 16 years old (Radic, 2015). As a result of this, many people view

taking care of young children is an “easy job” which does not require any formal education.

However, this is inaccurate because looking after young children involves an individual to posses

a variety of knowledge and skills. Young children also need to be educated by their caretakers

which require knowledge from specific document such as ELECT. Due to this, instead of

providing a legal age to babysit children, I believe the government should create mandatory

training/resources for people who are planning to take care of young children. Currently, the

Early Childhood education is an optional diploma program that caregivers can take to become a

Registered ECE which enables them to take care of children in a childcare setting. However,

since babysitting is viewed as an “easy job”, registered ECE’s often experience low pay for their

work. Thus, if all babysitters required mandatory education, it would decrease the educational

and pay gap between registered ECE’s and babysitters. It would also remove the stereotype of

babysitting being an easy job. Since I am currently studying Early Childhood education as a

degree program in Ryerson, I am interested in what resources/training they would provide to

decrease the educational gap. I believe the document called ELECT should be included because

it talks about specific expectations children should achieve at a certain age.

In my life experiences, I started baby sitting my younger cousins at the age of 15 and continued

until I was 18. Personally, I found this experience beneficial because I was able to take on a

responsibility that I enjoyed doing. I also realized that taking care and educating children takes a

lot of skills such as patience and understanding. Due to my positive experiences, it contributed to
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my growing interest in the wellbeing and education of young children. This eventually led to my

decision of choosing Early Childhood education as a degree program in Ryerson. Although I had

great experiences babysitting, I do believe I should have had some prior training/resources

because it could have helped me become more educated on the appropriate care children needed.

It would have also encouraged me to provide children with educational experiences that would

have promoted their development.

I have a few friends who had negative experiences with babysitting their siblings when they

were teenagers. Some of them felt the responsibility was forced on them which resulted in them

becoming stressed and angry. Thus, I believe babysitting should not be looked as a “starter job”

or “forced responsibility”. It should be viewed as a career path focused on taking care and

educating children.

To be a babysitter or ECE, there are some skills are needed to enhance the practice. I believe

some of the necessary skills are professionalism and effective communication. Professionalism

can help an educator to stay alert and provide children with appropriate care. It also helps

parents/guardians view ECE settings as an organized institution which is essential in order for

the public to follow the rules emplaced. Effective communication is important because it

provides opportunities for interaction between educators and children/parents. Effective

communication is also essential to create a positive learning environment that supports

development. Since both these qualities are essential in childcare settings, if an individual does

not posses these qualities, they may not be ready to take on the role of a caretaker/ECE is a

childcare setting.

In my degree program, Early Childhood Education, I learned a lot about the importance of

communicating with families and creating an inclusive environment for children to learn in. By
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learning this, I was able to use some of the strategies in my practice as an ECE. This was

beneficial for the childcare environment as well as for the people involved (parents and

children). Although, I enjoyed this experience, I wanted to gain a better understanding of

working with children and child services available. I was also interested in learning about the

appropriate responses an educator/childcare worker should react in situations. Thus, I choose to

take Child and Youth Care as a minor to further develop my knowledge in working with

children. From learning about this subject, I believe it would be a good addition to my

knowledge as well as my future careers.

Currently, I am not sure the exact career I want to go into. However, since I enjoy working with

children, I am sure my future career will involve children. I have though about becoming a

primary teacher because I do enjoy educating children as well as planning curriculum. Whatever

career I choose, I hope to implement the skills and knowledge I have learned from Child and

Youth Care and Early Childhood education (my degree program). I believe this would benefit

my practice and give me the confidence to succeed with children.

Citation
Radic, I. (n.d.). Legal Age for Leaving Children Unsupervised Across Canada. Retrieved from

https://cwrp.ca/sites/default/files/publications/en/144e.pdf