Excerpts
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Katie Reynolds enjoyed her job in the beverage industry, but when her 18-month maternity leave was over and she couldn't find child care for her daughter, she said she had no other choice but to quit.
When she was seven months pregnant, Reynolds had registered her daughter on various daycare waitlists. But that still wasn't enough time to secure a spot that aligned with her full-time hours.
"There was no way around it," said Reynolds. "I was going to become a stay-at-home parent, and that was horrifying. I probably cried for the first week, two weeks."
The now stay-at-home mother, who lives in Wolfville, N.S., with her husband and four-year-old daughter, had a good salary, benefits and pension. She said she didn't realize that in her case, she would have to make a choice between career and motherhood.
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But Reynolds is only one of many parents forced to make this decision.
For 4.9 per cent of children up to age five in Nova Scotia, according to a 2023 Statistics Canada report, their parents were not using child care and had to delay their return to work due to difficulties finding it.
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