Summer. Whether you're eagerly awaiting or dreading the Tetris of the schedule, it's happening.
For me, summer gives me a headache. I miss the days of daycare where I just continued to drop E off at 7:30am and picked her up between 5:30 and 6pm. Bam, Full-day care. But summer? No, its a 9-3:30 deal. It is a working parent's nightmare.
First, can we at least make camps start the same time as school? or perhaps offer actual full-day camps? You know 8-5? 8:30-4:30 even? And heaven forbid you have camps at two different locations. That gives me my lunch hour to run from one place to the next. Summer is exhausting.
I won't even complain about the cost. I do not know how working parents that cannot afford camps do summer. For us, we spend an average of $400 a week for camps. Some are little less and some are little more. So, we've spent about $2000 on camps alone.
Then, I have to pay a summer sitter to pick E up at 3:30 and hang out until we get home at 5:30ish. So, tack on another $15 an hour. And for the 8-9am hour? Yeah, camps have "before" care. Tack on an extra $5 an hour. I know its not bad, but that's $25 each week, in addition to the camp cost and the sitter to pick her up.
This does not take into account twirling competitions, twirling camp, summer soccer or vacation.
Summer is a giant game of Tetris. Which parent can go in late, which parent can leave early. Which parent can use her lunch to be the go-between (hint its me for the go-between). I am super lucky that my husband is willing and does help out when he can. But, I work in Fort Worth so its much faster for me.
I know some of you are wondering if a summer nanny is the better option, but I can tell you that's a hard no. If I pay $15/hr for 8 hours for 5 days a week, I am at $600 a week so about $6,000 for the summer. We will get off cheaper than that with camps and our summer sitter. I also am blessed that I work from home 2 days a week so that takes care of at least 2 days.
There are a ton of other camps that I know E would love to attend, but they are either way $$ or the drive each day just does not work for our schedule. And sleep away camp is out of the question.
There are lots of other options from City-run care, the local YMCA and financial aid. If you are looking for summer care or camps and you are in the Fort Worth area all of the private schools offer camps that are open to the public and pretty low-cost. TCU offers sports camps, Art& Soul has art camps and I know there are a ton more.
So, happy summer to all you working mamas and stay at home mamas trying to juggle all the kids and all the activities.
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