When Linda Cohoon needs a capable, savvy baby-sitter during the summer months for her three young children (aged 9, 7 and 4), she knows just who to call... the “On Farm Childcare Program”.
Linda helps head up a busy farm family. She and her husband work land on the Brock-Scugog Townline, close to Seagrave. They grow corn, soybean and wheat, as well as some beef cattle. Their farm, like most, is full of heavy equipment. It is a rich, wonderland of play for their children, but also full of potential danger.
“There are people in and out with machines, big tractors and combines, there is a lot of equipment in and around the farm,” explains Linda. “There are safety issues. A four-year-old simply sees his dad come in and drive to the back of the barn and takes off, and when they’re in a big machine they don’t always see them. Even if I’m cutting the grass and in the same area, someone might come in and I won’t see him coming.”
Families like the Cohoon’s need access to dependable, affordable babysitters that understand both the fun and danger of farm life – and are able to adjust to a flexible farming schedule.
The Durham Farm and Rural Family Resources Program (DFRFR) has a solution for farming families like Linda. Every summer since 1989, farming families can utilize the On Farm Childcare Program.
The program provides the services of highly-skilled students, normally 18 or older and often studying in areas like early childhood development, for on-site babysitting for farming families. The young women – and they are most often young women – arrive at the family farm in their own vehicle at a pre-arranged time, ready to provide hours of quality child-care, including an activity kit full of crafts and other surprises.
“It was started back in 1989 by the Bethesda Reach Women’s Institute,” explains Karen Barkey, On Farm Coordinator. “In one year they lost three young kids to farming accidents. It was totally their brain wave, that they were going to hire a student and see if he or she can work with some of the families.”
The program has grown since then, to include three students available for on-farm babysitting this summer, with 13 families registered so far.
“When the girls go out to the farms they have a huge tote full of crafts and activities they can do with the kids throughout the day,” explains Karen. “It’s not just babysitting, it’s quality child care. This year two of our students are going on to be teachers.”
For Linda, “the biggest thing is getting relief. Sometimes my husband wants me to do things farm-wise, it frees me up without having to be constantly worrying about things. I think it’s a great program, I think anyone with a farm and kids should use it.”
That’s just what Karen Barkey hopes will happen. “The kids are underfoot, they are tagging along behind, or going for a ride in the tractor – and my own kids love to go for a ride – but if they’re having to spend the whole day on the tractor that’s not ideal for anybody, even the operator is putting themself at risk because they can’t focus.”
In fact, almost two-thirds of fatal farm injuries of children and youth involve machinery, with tractors making up half of that number, according to the 2007 Canadian Agriculture Injury Report. Death by drowning is another huge risk, making up 35.6 per cent of deaths in the one to four-year-old age range. The report also says that among the children and youth who died in agricultural-related injuries, 70 per cent were the children or relatives of the owner/operator.
That is a statistic that farming families know all too well. The On Farm Childcare Program is one very practical way – kept affordable through fundraising – of addressing the issue of farm safety for children. The program hopes to expand this fall with a Rural Caregiver Registry that will provide farming families with childcare outside of the May-August window when the On Farm Program operates.
For more information or to register for the On Farm Program, email onfarm@durhamfamilyresources.org .
By Karen Stiller
Focus on Scugog
