Can working parents make summer swim happen?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well if you insist on hiring a ‘professional’ nanny for your elementary kids that’s on you. Hired teenagers. Pay them $15 an hour. Kids play at pool with them in the afternoon. On rainy days they play board games or occasionally have a special something like bowling. So no. This isn’t about money. This is about choices.

I mean when I hear the word nanny I’m assuming you are speaking of an actual professional one. But I’m sure people here are calling a teenage babysitter a “nanny” because it makes them sound weary and privileged.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well if you insist on hiring a ‘professional’ nanny for your elementary kids that’s on you. Hired teenagers. Pay them $15 an hour. Kids play at pool with them in the afternoon. On rainy days they play board games or occasionally have a special something like bowling. So no. This isn’t about money. This is about choices.

Wow you’re a cheapskate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well if you insist on hiring a ‘professional’ nanny for your elementary kids that’s on you. Hired teenagers. Pay them $15 an hour. Kids play at pool with them in the afternoon. On rainy days they play board games or occasionally have a special something like bowling. So no. This isn’t about money. This is about choices.

I mean, I’m impressed that you’ve found a teen sitter who will accept $15 per hour for six weeks- I’m assuming you don’t need them to drive? I would need that so it would cost more. But when I do the math for the hours I need it’s still twice as much as the rec camp DC is enrolled in even at $15 per hour. For some of us, yes it is about money. I’m sorry if that bothers you so much.

[Anonymous]

Yes summer swim is designed for SAHP and kids not in camp. Yes you can make it work by going to camp late and some but not all practices during the week. It helps if you have a flexible job and boss. Yes working parents ate volunteering and making it work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am curious what college kid nanny could do with kids after the swim practice in the morning? We have 2 ES kids, and I pay around $1100 to $1300.for weekly day camps in total. It is more expensive because I pay for transportation & extended care at camp. Is nanny cheaper in my case? My kids are different gender with different interests, what could summer college hire could do with them for the rest of day each week?

Stay at the pool and have lunch. Go home by 2 and rest and do crafts, watch a show, cook something and read. Go to a museum/indoor park on hot or rainy days. Drop them off and a one off event like music class or dance class or coding course.
Im going the nanny route next year for my girl (6 and 9)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes summer swim is designed for SAHP and kids not in camp. Yes you can make it work by going to camp late and some but not all practices during the week. It helps if you have a flexible job and boss. Yes working parents ate volunteering and making it work.

Maybe at some teams, but not at ours nor any of the other clubs we know. It sucks if someone's local club is trapped in a time warp, because they're definitely not all like that.

[Anonymous]

Some pools are just more willing, or in some cases have more space to offer more time options. Even before my kids were swim team age, I found it crazy that our pool only offered group lessons at midday on weekdays. They open up the lessons to non-members as well so have no trouble filling them, but I can't tell you how many member parents I've talked to who were frustrated by the complete lack of evening or weekend options. Even private lessons were hard to arrange outside of working hours. Relatively speaking, I actually found it easier once they were past the daycare stage and in ES to make the swim team practices work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am curious what college kid nanny could do with kids after the swim practice in the morning? We have 2 ES kids, and I pay around $1100 to $1300.for weekly day camps in total. It is more expensive because I pay for transportation & extended care at camp. Is nanny cheaper in my case? My kids are different gender with different interests, what could summer college hire could do with them for the rest of day each week?

The basic routine was swim team in the morning and playing at the playground next to the pool with swim team friends after practice. Then home for lunch. Followed by some quiet time usually reading or crafts or legos. Then back to the pool to play. If it rained they played board games.

We had one babysitter who loved the guitar and would play guitar and started teaching my kids how to play. One summer my kids got super into perler bead crafts. One summer one daughter learned how to crochet by watching you tube videos, that was the same summer they got into board games.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well if you insist on hiring a ‘professional’ nanny for your elementary kids that’s on you. Hired teenagers. Pay them $15 an hour. Kids play at pool with them in the afternoon. On rainy days they play board games or occasionally have a special something like bowling. So no. This isn’t about money. This is about choices.

Wow you’re a cheapskate.

Np, no…there’s no need to pay big bucks for someone to provide childcare for school aged children.

[Anonymous]

Of course working parents can make summer swim happen but we make choices and compromises to do so.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:For working parent that make it work, I am wondering when your child's day camp start or end if you go for morning practice or/and evening practice? Won't your kids be exhausted after attending swim practices? My kid either get bused to day camps aroubd 8:15am or dropped off at 9am and I always pay for extended after cares. If I don't pay for extended cares, the camp ends maybe 3pm or 4pm (with busing). They stay outdoor full day. Someone in the family must have flexible schedules to do the drop off/pick up and transportation.

When my kids were younger and attended camps, they had no problem if my children arrived a bit late. I just gave them a heads up.

+1 this is summer camp, aka glorified childcare, not school. It’s ok if they show up a little late.

It doesn't work to show up late for camp when the camp leaves for field trips by 9:30 and swim team for ten and under is 9 to 10 am. So evening practice it is even though the kids in the evening get way less coaching instruction.

You chose to sign your kids up for a camp that had departing field trips and made the choice to participate in evening practice. I chose to hire a summer nanny for the swim team weeks, let my kids sleep in, and play at the pool in the afternoon. Both are valid choices with trade offs. Stop complaining

You are the one putting down valid and necessary choices. I found a camp that was local and affordable with quality staff that doesn't warehouse kids. A nanny is more money than I can swing as the kids will still want to go places and I'm sorry college kids and high school kids flake. Kids in evening practice should not be treated as second class citizens.

No, but coaches shouldn’t do more hours for no additional money. Paying them appropriately for a second round of practices would drive up the cost of summer swim, which might make it inaccessible to other groups.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our team has early morning (7 am) practice and late evening (6:30 PM) practice.

This is our team, tho times vary by age group.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A few of my neighbors have asked me why swim team practices are conducted during the day, during traditional work hours. They would like to join our team, but they cannot lose work to bring kids to morning practice.

I am stumped. Why is this the general practice? We make it work. We have always had either a nanny or a parent that works from home and can take some time off.

What can be done to make this a more inclusive environment for all?

Many of the summer swim pools are HOA pools. The time the HOA gives to the swim teams are almost ALWAYS early morning before the pool would normally open. The HOA simply won't allow the pool to be closed every evening for swim practice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes summer swim is designed for SAHP and kids not in camp. Yes you can make it work by going to camp late and some but not all practices during the week. It helps if you have a flexible job and boss. Yes working parents ate volunteering and making it work.

NP and it is shocking to me that this is still the set up for summer swim. It is the setup from back when I saw in the late 70s/80s. Also back then, we were walking/riding bikes to and from the pool by ourselves in the early morning hours even when we were 7 and 8 years old. I recall going home to an empty house some mornings at that age because my mom had gone out to run errands and my older siblings went to summer jobs. Things have definitely changed.

I know that the suggestions for ways pools and teams can adapt but I would rather see employers adapt and allow parents full flexibility to work remotely during the summer months. Summer camp is expensive. It ends early. Hiring a summer babysitter or nanny is not always an option.

[Anonymous]

Our kids are able to ride their bikes to swim practice during the day. But our team also offers an early evening practice for those kids that can't make it during the day due to camp or inability to get to the morning shifts.