When you qualify for the Child-Rearing Provision, the government will exclude certain periods of time when calculating your pension amount. These periods of time will be the months when you had little to no income because you were caring for one or more young children. In their place, you’ll receive credits which amount to the average of your earnings for 5 years prior to the child being born or adopted. This will help you increase the amount of your CPP payment for when you retire.