It has been a crazy couple of weeks, with piles of out of town holiday guests, and I am thoroughly and totally exhausted. Now I am frantically trying to get my holiday shopping done, while still looking for a new job, while planning things for the kids to do (they are on summer vacation), while also planning for moving back to the US (if we do that next summer--in addition to the US job, we have some other possibilities, including in Africa--but more on that later).
But here is what I have been wondering, amidst the other madness: what do American parents do these days with their elementary school aged children during summer breaks, and how much does that cost? As the possibility of returning to the US looms large, I'm pondering the logistics of being a family with two working parents, and I'm totally stumped on this one.
4 comments:
As an American family of two working parents with 2 young kids, I can tell you that I choked on the daycare bill. For two kids it will be half of my monthly pay. When X goes to school and not daycare, I don't know what we are going to do about before and after care. Friends of mine set it up so that one parent works 9am-6pm to take care of school drop off and the other parent works from 6am-3pm to be able to pick up the kids from school.
I'm in an American family with 1 working parent and my wife likes to have a day or two to herself to decompress, and it gives our Punky some socialization outside the house. Even 2 days a week is more than we could afford. We had to stop for a few months until we get caught up. The daycare bill is nuts!
You could do camp. There are some camps around here that run daycare/camp options during those weeks between the time school ends and camp begins (and vice versa) so parents are covered all but a week or so.
Or you post on a neighbourhood listserv that you're looking for daily care. There are sometimes parents who will take in an extra kid during those summer months. The plus is that they already have a kid so your kid has someone to play with.
Our local YMCAs run pretty fabulous, more affordable summer camps when school is out for the summer. You can also choose additional enrichment (swimming lessons, karate, dance) that they fit in during the day if the kids are super active or need to develop some skills.
Post a Comment