Canadian parents often have tough choices to consider when making child care decisions. And according to a survey by Today's Parent magazine, there is often no single solution.

The magazine received over 5,000 responses in its call for parents to describe their child care woes. The results are published in the February issue of the magazine.

Caroline Connell, editor in chief of Today's Parent, says the most surprising result of the survey for her was the number of families who are getting by with no single child care arrangement.

"A lot of families are using multiple arrangements, cobbling together different things, some parent care, some day care," she told Canada AM. "We were also surprised by the prevalence of problems people had both in finding care that they felt good about and paying for it."

The survey found that the most common types of child care were at-home parents -- 38% of respondents had one parent staying at home, including mothers on maternity leave -- and part-time care by a relative; 17 per cent of families used that option. Just 16 per cent of the respondents used licensed day cares full-time.

"The actual day care number was lower than I was expecting," Connell remarked.

"A lot of families have a grandma at home or whatever. It's a mixed bag, and the surprising thing again was the number of parents who use several different arrangements in a single week."

The survey also asked parents to describe the kinds of challenges they faced with their child care situation. The Top 3 challenges were:

• The high cost of care - 59 per cent cited that as a problem
• Concerns about the quality of care -- 50 per cent cited that
• Trouble finding full-time space in a day-care centre - 39 per cent
• Being unable to afford to stay at home - 39 per cent

Alison MacLean is a full-time parent who works part-time. She told Canada AM that middle-income earners like her family often find the costs of day care difficult.

"We really feel like we're in the middle where we make too much to be subsidized to put our child in day care and then we don't make enough to put him into full-time day-care."

Connell agrees, noting that with a full-time space for an infant costing in the range of $1,000 a month, it's simply not affordable for a lot of families.

The parents told the magazine that governments can do a lot more to help working families:

• 51 per cent want increased tax breaks and credits for all parents of children under six years of age
• 46 per cent want tax breaks specifically for stay-at-home parents
• 45 per cent want legislation requiring employers to allow parents of young children to work part-time or flexible hours.