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Top tier athlete over here. By the lovely Grace Farris.
P.S. In which I’ve somehow become a sports mom and other sports I’ve considered.
My Spring Sports
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Oh my goodness!!!! I relate to this so much!!!!
Oh I thought our spring sport this year was fighting the dismantling of US democracy….
Oh “light jacket” weather! I have the opposite problem: I always think it will be warm enough for ‘just a light jacket’ and then end up freezing, cursing myself for putting away my winter clothes at the first sight of daffodils!
As for camp, if anyone else is lucky enough to live in the Portland area, a friend is developing a new app – called School’s Out – that helps find summer camps. Just flipping through it has taken so much pressure off my search – there are so many options that aren’t even open for registration yet! Hopefully they can upscale the platform to the rest of the country, because being in the beta test city is niiiiiiiiiice.
Omg hot tip! Portland Oregon? I’m here but I don’t see the app — just a waitlist option on their site maybe? Would love a link if it is active here 🤓
Google “Schools Out App” and it should pop up as the first option! Happy to share!
Ha! I run a summer camp. Every year, my partner and I talk about reducing to Monday – Thursday (or half day!). We look at other camps and think : could WE work short hours? How do these places charge $575 for so few hours ?
AHAHHAA. This hits so close. :P
Over here swooning like Kate Bush in “Wuthering Heights” through ye olde Seasonal Allergy Fog. Am I greeting the spring with dance? Naw, I just can’t feel my face and am unclear on if I’m about to sneeze or fall asleep.
As a full time working parent (who works ACTUAL, non flexible, working hours OUTSIDE the home) with an equally non-WFH, full time spouse…the summer camps do not provide enough coverage. So, we have a nanny. I’m curious how other dual lawyer/physician/consultant/nurse etc families make it work? (I’m talking people who are at work by 7am, and don’t come home til 5 pm or later)
Do the camps in your area not have extended care? The different camps we sign my daughter up for (Girl Scout camp, and then a Jewish camp at a nearby temple) offer extended care hours, which usually open at 6:30 a.m. and end at 6:00 p.m. That’s rough, though, and I’ve noticed that most kids don’t utilize those hours so my daughter has often been the only one! I think a nanny makes a lot of sense in your situation! We tried that last year for a few weeks. It’s way more $$$ though.
And I understand your frustration . . . I have a hybrid schedule (3 days in office, 2 at home), but my husband works full-time outside the home (6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.) and we often marvel at how many parents are able to take their kids to school, pick them up at the bell (not after school care!), be there for minimum days, random school assemblies, etc. Then I read a stat that 1/3 of the workforce is fully remote now! That’s a lot. But it makes it so that schools/camps are even less likely to cater to families with two WOOH (work outside the home–new acronym?!) parents who don’t have a nanny or a grandparent dedicated to childcare.
We have a live in au pair. Three kids 8 and under and very little work flexibility with no summer time off. It’s really tough when you don’t have work flexibility or family close by who can help.
I think this is really the only way. Unless one parent downscales to part time.
Office jobs for both of us (so more flex than seeing patients, actually clocking in). The only way we have made it work is (i) only letting kiddo go to camps with extra before and after care AND that are very close / on our commute and (ii) banding together with other families so that the messed up hours only impact 1 day of the week. (i.e. I am responsible for Monday, Hubby is Tuesday, Friend Mom is Wed, Friend Dad is Thurs, Friend B Mom is Friday). I don’t think that summer camp works for people who have real shifts with clock in clock out times.
We also have a summer nanny (high school or college students who can drive since we don’t need a full-time nanny during the school year) – and we only sign our kids up for a few camps that they’re really excited about/interested in. Summer calendars are a little chaotic – and always feels super expensive!
Late reply, but 1000% this. If anyone has tips on finding a summer nanny I’d be really grateful. I’ve been worrying about it since Jan even though that was too early to actually do anything, and now it’s time to look and I’m worried about finding someone! Plus distracted with increased complexity at work due to the big federal changes etc etc..
Oh man, I feel the summer camp thing, except here it’s a 9-noon problem! Do we not also need to work in the afternoons? I can’t be the only one… Sheesh!
agreed! But also, spring? Our area’s most popular camps had registration MLK Day weekend. Snooze you lose around here.
There should be a “Dressing in layers to compete in the marathon Four Seasons in One Day” Challenge. You start out in 35 degree chill and end up lugging 90% of your attire home in 80 degrees at the end of the day. Ah, yes: MARCH.
Haha, yes, I remember the summer camp gymnastics. While I enjoyed finding fun camps for the kids, it was always a struggle to make everything work with two working parents who (prior to Covid) could not just drive around at 2 pm to pick up a kid from a fun woodworking camp that did not have any afternoon care … now we are having our first empty nest summer, with one kid away for an internship, the other one as a full time counselor at an overnight camp. I do miss having kids at home, it’s gonna be weird without. However, I look forward to a summer with WAY less driving and more swimming.
I worked as an overnight summer camp counselor many moons ago, and it was the best thing ever. It was exhausting in the best way (and you don’t feel the exhaustion when you’re that young!) but so fun. hope your kid has an amazing time.
Summer childcare is the absolute worst! A friend used to call camp scheduling “real life Tetris”
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