Summer swim and childcare logistics or camp

[Anonymous]

I’m guessing that most summer swim families have a sahp or nanny. We haven’t done ss yet but would like to try next year, Our pool has two morning practices for under 10 kids, I forget, like 8 to 845 am and then 850 to 935, and I’m not sure how much advance notice you get. Most camps start at 9 am. Even if we were in an early group, it would be a tight fit getting them showered and out to camp. We both work full time but have some flexibility in schedules. I don’t know if it makes more sense to try to hire a summer nanny and then save camps for August when SS is done, and maybe throw in some afternoon camps here and there. Any BTDT perspectives would be appreciated. It looks fun but tricky for working parents.

[Anonymous]

I telework and days I go into work, my parents take my kids. We save camps for august.

They are home while I telework but they keep busy and I’ve taken off a lot.

[Anonymous]

Find a pool with evening swim team. Ours is in the PM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m guessing that most summer swim families have a sahp or nanny. We haven’t done ss yet but would like to try next year, Our pool has two morning practices for under 10 kids, I forget, like 8 to 845 am and then 850 to 935, and I’m not sure how much advance notice you get. Most camps start at 9 am. Even if we were in an early group, it would be a tight fit getting them showered and out to camp. We both work full time but have some flexibility in schedules. I don’t know if it makes more sense to try to hire a summer nanny and then save camps for August when SS is done, and maybe throw in some afternoon camps here and there. Any BTDT perspectives would be appreciated. It looks fun but tricky for working parents.

Read the threads on mandatory parent volunteering on the sports general discussion forum. Summer swim parent volunteering is usually required and is no joke. It’s a huge commitment. Meets need 30-40 adults minimum per meet just to run.

[Anonymous]

My partner and I work full time. My kids did summer swim and I worked from the pool, or took part in the neighborhood carpool. After swim they would go to camp, but it was a low cost county, no frills, camp through their school. That way it didn't really matter that they were missing half the day of camp. Kids had a blast with the relative unstructured nature of this kind of camp, and we saved the more skill/focused/expensive camps for August.

[Anonymous]

My kids did summer swim and we hired a summer babysitter for those weeks, then did camps after summer swim ended.

We hired college kids home for the summer as summer babysitters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m guessing that most summer swim families have a sahp or nanny. We haven’t done ss yet but would like to try next year, Our pool has two morning practices for under 10 kids, I forget, like 8 to 845 am and then 850 to 935, and I’m not sure how much advance notice you get. Most camps start at 9 am. Even if we were in an early group, it would be a tight fit getting them showered and out to camp. We both work full time but have some flexibility in schedules. I don’t know if it makes more sense to try to hire a summer nanny and then save camps for August when SS is done, and maybe throw in some afternoon camps here and there. Any BTDT perspectives would be appreciated. It looks fun but tricky for working parents.

If they wear a cap at practice they won’t need showers. Will still be tight but if it’s a relaxed camp, you can be late and no one will mind.

Our pool has practice from 5-6:15 for ten and unders, so we do the opposite- pick up a bit early from camp and rush over (or find someone who can help do that like a teen coach or carpool).

[Anonymous]

You could possibly carpool and arrange camps with other families, so you only have to do the driving from swim practice to camp once or twice a week.

It is a lot, though. We decided not to do it for this reason.

[Anonymous]

Early swim session, quick shower at the pool (or skip shower; NBD), and find a camp nearby to save time.

Does it matter if you show up to camp at 915/930 verse 9am sharp? The first 30 minutes is open play anyway to allow drop off, parents running late, etc.

[Anonymous]

Until my kids were old enough to bike to pool on their own, we did summer nanny (college - super easy hire) and saved sleep away camp or focused sports camps for post SS. My pool does offer a PM practice but it’s only 2 days per week, lightly attended, and PM practice is during prime summer thunderstorm time so reality is you might not even get 2 practices a week. My teens are still competitive SS swimmers, and for our family the summer nanny was the best option.

[Anonymous]

We both work FT but are first responders so do weird schedules. We don’t do camp in June or July until the last week. On the days we need childcare we use a HS sitter that we also use during the school year. We then do 4 weeks of camps followed by a vacation week then back to school.
The time of practice is dependent on the coaches. I wouldn’t totally plan on a set time un til you know if the same head Coach is coaching and/or if they are likely to want the same times. Our times changed from 2 years ago. The age bracket changed too because of the different ages of kid swimmers. The early one was originally 11 and under but they changed it to 10 and under……

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m guessing that most summer swim families have a sahp or nanny. We haven’t done ss yet but would like to try next year, Our pool has two morning practices for under 10 kids, I forget, like 8 to 845 am and then 850 to 935, and I’m not sure how much advance notice you get. Most camps start at 9 am. Even if we were in an early group, it would be a tight fit getting them showered and out to camp. We both work full time but have some flexibility in schedules. I don’t know if it makes more sense to try to hire a summer nanny and then save camps for August when SS is done, and maybe throw in some afternoon camps here and there. Any BTDT perspectives would be appreciated. It looks fun but tricky for working parents.

Read the threads on mandatory parent volunteering on the sports general discussion forum. Summer swim parent volunteering is usually required and is no joke. It’s a huge commitment. Meets need 30-40 adults minimum per meet just to run.

+1
It’s not just the practice times but make sure you have time in your schedule for the volunteering.

[Anonymous]

Our pool has one practice in the morning and one in the evening

[Anonymous]

How old is your kid?
Will she be in the development group and not on the actual swim team? If so, you could just do swim lessons (which is the sane thing as the developmental group of a swim team) if she's not even remotely ready to be on the actual team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids did summer swim and we hired a summer babysitter for those weeks, then did camps after summer swim ended.

We hired college kids home for the summer as summer babysitters.

+1 this is what we did. College student home for the summer did 5 weeks with us for summer swim time. Felt like a great happy medium because kids got some downtime during the days at home during those weeks and then august is a few weeks of camps they are interested in plus vacation time. We’re really loving this summer and will probably repeat next year.