Working Parents - how do you handle summers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dream: ship them off to an 8 week camp up in Maine. It looks like such fun for them and no spreadsheets for me!

Some of us actually like our kids and enjoy being with them and teaching them.

Then why are most moms popping champagne the first day of school?

Listen, the reality is after one or two weeks. People are sick of their kids.

I personally love kids. I really do. I love other peoples kids. I love my kids. I love teaching other peoples kids, but that’s not the norm.

I had enough flexibility to work at home summers and I wasn't popping champagne. I loved having DC home during summers. Bubbles, sprinklers, parks, (yes, some camps), water parks, etc. Those are the precious moments in a child's life. While def not easy, they are wonderful.

[Anonymous]

Summer sitter with camps sprinkled in. Sitter often did pickups and drop offs. This way, kids could do swim team and half-day camps. I also did not work in office every day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dream: ship them off to an 8 week camp up in Maine. It looks like such fun for them and no spreadsheets for me!

Some of us actually like our kids and enjoy being with them and teaching them.

Then why are most moms popping champagne the first day of school?

Listen, the reality is after one or two weeks. People are sick of their kids.

I personally love kids. I really do. I love other peoples kids. I love my kids. I love teaching other peoples kids, but that’s not the norm.

I had enough flexibility to work at home summers and I wasn't popping champagne. I loved having DC home during summers. Bubbles, sprinklers, parks, (yes, some camps), water parks, etc. Those are the precious moments in a child's life. While def not easy, they are wonderful.

I agree that “most moms” like spending time with their children.

It is precious and fleeting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For those of you who leave work early in the summer, don't you have meetings? I have too many meetings to do that. At this point my kids do go to sleep away camp, when they were younger we did full day camps plus an after school/camp sitter from 4-6.

I would but commit to a meeting at that time.

It is usually just for a few weeks.

[Anonymous]

Working mom here. Smartest thing I ever did was marry a teacher. I have nothing but sympathy for working parents struggling to cover summer childcare, so I try to be as flexible as possible with my staff. I hope your bosses do too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have a year round nanny. In the summer, the kids go to day camp.

You pay for a nanny and day camp?

[Anonymous]

Most camps have an after care option. Start with your local rec or community center. Although you are probably too late for those.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those of you who leave work early in the summer, don't you have meetings? I have too many meetings to do that. At this point my kids do go to sleep away camp, when they were younger we did full day camps plus an after school/camp sitter from 4-6.

I would but commit to a meeting at that time.

It is usually just for a few weeks.

At a lot of jobs there is no way you could get away with not being available for meetings (or last minute requests) for an hour or two for 6 weeks in the summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those of you who leave work early in the summer, don't you have meetings? I have too many meetings to do that. At this point my kids do go to sleep away camp, when they were younger we did full day camps plus an after school/camp sitter from 4-6.

I would but commit to a meeting at that time.

It is usually just for a few weeks.

At a lot of jobs there is no way you could get away with not being available for meetings (or last minute requests) for an hour or two for 6 weeks in the summer.

I have meetings after 5 most days of the week. In person meetings as we don’t work from home. But I’m one of those parents who ships their kids off for 8 weeks of summer camp.

[Anonymous]

The same way we handle the school year - split shift. One of us goes to work at 5-6am and leaves work at 2pm-3pm to pickup from camp; the other does all the drop offs and gets to work by 9am and works a more typical day. We alternate who has the early morning.

I mean who wants to only see their kids for a couple hours every night if they are stuck in SACC till 6pm and in bed by 8pm?

[Anonymous]

All of you with meetings at five and six PM—yuck. Why is this a thing? I can see a quick call or email but a multi-stakeholder meeting???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those of you who leave work early in the summer, don't you have meetings? I have too many meetings to do that. At this point my kids do go to sleep away camp, when they were younger we did full day camps plus an after school/camp sitter from 4-6.

I would but commit to a meeting at that time.

It is usually just for a few weeks.

At a lot of jobs there is no way you could get away with not being available for meetings (or last minute requests) for an hour or two for 6 weeks in the summer.

This. Is every single poster on DCUM "the boss" at their office? No one has ever worked a job where the hours are set and if the boss sets a meeting, you need to be there or you'll lose the job?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All of you with meetings at five and six PM—yuck. Why is this a thing? I can see a quick call or email but a multi-stakeholder meeting???

Really? You can't think of a single industry that has work beyond 10am-4pm hours? You don't think there are ANY jobs/companies around here that have other offices or clients in other time zones, and may need to coordinate long conference calls or online meetings with them?
What kind of job do you do that can keep an employee with such limited perspective and experience?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those of you who leave work early in the summer, don't you have meetings? I have too many meetings to do that. At this point my kids do go to sleep away camp, when they were younger we did full day camps plus an after school/camp sitter from 4-6.

I would but commit to a meeting at that time.

It is usually just for a few weeks.

At a lot of jobs there is no way you could get away with not being available for meetings (or last minute requests) for an hour or two for 6 weeks in the summer.

This. Is every single poster on DCUM "the boss" at their office? No one has ever worked a job where the hours are set and if the boss sets a meeting, you need to be there or you'll lose the job?

Well I assume you make $$$ so hire a nanny driver.

Many of us are gov contractors and such with defined core hours of 10-3 and flex around that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those of you who leave work early in the summer, don't you have meetings? I have too many meetings to do that. At this point my kids do go to sleep away camp, when they were younger we did full day camps plus an after school/camp sitter from 4-6.

I would but commit to a meeting at that time.

It is usually just for a few weeks.

At a lot of jobs there is no way you could get away with not being available for meetings (or last minute requests) for an hour or two for 6 weeks in the summer.

This. Is every single poster on DCUM "the boss" at their office? No one has ever worked a job where the hours are set and if the boss sets a meeting, you need to be there or you'll lose the job?

Well I assume you make $$$ so hire a nanny driver.

Many of us are gov contractors and such with defined core hours of 10-3 and flex around that.

Why would you assume that I make a lot of money? I just insinuated that I am not "the boss" that calls all the shots for meeting times at my job. If anything, I would think one would assume I make very little money from that statement.