Can working parents make summer swim happen?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have three kids and my husband and I have always worked full time.

We found that hiring a summer babysitter was cheaper than three kids at day camps.

Our set up for summer has been:
Weeks 1-6: summer babysitter and swim team
Week 7: week at grandparents
Week 8: day camps or sleep away camps
Week 9: family vacation
Week 10: day camps

We do a very similar set up. It's not that hard to juggle.

We are doing this next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We both work full time. We just hire a college aged sitter for the first 5 weeks of summer. It’s worked well for us. I prefer it to jumping around and managing camp sign ups anyway. A couple camps in some areas of interest after swim is done, a vacation and that is summer for us.

When it works we’ve split the sitter with another family and that’s been great. But with two kids, paying for a summer sitter is the same if not less than paying for two different camps every week so it has always seemed like a reasonable option to me. But yes, a barrier if you aren’t UMC which is very problematic. But it’s mostly my UMC friends paying for camp for 2-3 kids saying they can’t do it, that part is confusing for me.

It is just a worth it thing that we prioritize, i do get why others might not - it’s a lot of work too. But I feel like the benefits outweigh that for us.

Hiring a sitter, especially if you need one with a car, always feels like more of a wild card for me, particularly when you have to sign up for camps in January. Do they plan activities and stuff or is that on you as a parent to come up with? But yeah, we’ll probably try to go that route once my younger kid is out of daycare next year.

NP- these are local pools. No car needed. Most of the summer nannies I see walk with the kids or ride bikes.

I think this is hardest with the very youngest swim team kids. The year my DD was a rising kindergartner she did swim and I would not have felt comfortable with a high school babysitter for her and her little brother. Now they are 6 and 8 - much sturdier, haha - and easier for a kid to manage - they can pretty safely bike to practice, oldest only needs a booster, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We both work full time. We just hire a college aged sitter for the first 5 weeks of summer. It’s worked well for us. I prefer it to jumping around and managing camp sign ups anyway. A couple camps in some areas of interest after swim is done, a vacation and that is summer for us.

When it works we’ve split the sitter with another family and that’s been great. But with two kids, paying for a summer sitter is the same if not less than paying for two different camps every week so it has always seemed like a reasonable option to me. But yes, a barrier if you aren’t UMC which is very problematic. But it’s mostly my UMC friends paying for camp for 2-3 kids saying they can’t do it, that part is confusing for me.

It is just a worth it thing that we prioritize, i do get why others might not - it’s a lot of work too. But I feel like the benefits outweigh that for us.

Hiring a sitter, especially if you need one with a car, always feels like more of a wild card for me, particularly when you have to sign up for camps in January. Do they plan activities and stuff or is that on you as a parent to come up with? But yeah, we’ll probably try to go that route once my younger kid is out of daycare next year.

NP- these are local pools. No car needed. Most of the summer nannies I see walk with the kids or ride bikes.

DP. That’s not always the case. Our community pool is a mile away across a busy road, so we have to drive. I’m not comfortable letting my kids bike there yet, but this might be an option when they are teens. There isn’t a closer pool, maybe you live in an area where pool density is greater and everyone can walk there.

[Anonymous]

Our practices have always been in the evening

5:30-6 - beginners
6-6:45 - intermediate
6:45-8 - advanced

But our pool has 3 pools in the complex so we don't need to shut down to the public during practice (which I think is why a lot do early AM practice.)
We could have never done AM practice as DH and I are both WOTH and the kids were always in camp until at least 5/5:30.

[Anonymous]

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.

My kids do evening practice at 6:00 when they are in camp M/Tu/Th, even when they had extended care it was doable because camp was so close. Sometimes I take them to camp late and have them do morning practice. It usually results in them getting to camp 15-20 minutes late.

[Anonymous]

PP Camp for us has drop off 8:30-9:00, extended care until 5:30

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have three kids and my husband and I have always worked full time.

We found that hiring a summer babysitter was cheaper than three kids at day camps.

Our set up for summer has been:
Weeks 1-6: summer babysitter and swim team
Week 7: week at grandparents
Week 8: day camps or sleep away camps
Week 9: family vacation
Week 10: day camps

We do a very similar set up. It's not that hard to juggle.

Have you run into any issues finding a summer sitter who will do only the first ~6 weeks or so? I'm posted upthread and am considering something like this for next summer, wondering if there are students/sitters interested in only doing a half-summer so that we can still do some camps and trips.

This was our setup with my own when they were younger. Now two are off to college. It’s easier to find sitters for 6 weeks or so. College kids start to leave mid August to return to college

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have three kids and my husband and I have always worked full time.

We found that hiring a summer babysitter was cheaper than three kids at day camps.

Our set up for summer has been:
Weeks 1-6: summer babysitter and swim team
Week 7: week at grandparents
Week 8: day camps or sleep away camps
Week 9: family vacation
Week 10: day camps

We do a very similar set up. It's not that hard to juggle.

Have you run into any issues finding a summer sitter who will do only the first ~6 weeks or so? I'm posted upthread and am considering something like this for next summer, wondering if there are students/sitters interested in only doing a half-summer so that we can still do some camps and trips.

This was our setup with my own when they were younger. Now two are off to college. It’s easier to find sitters for 6 weeks or so. College kids start to leave mid August to return to college

If you lock them down ahead of time, they can also plan their vacations around it. And yes, they go back sooner so it's actually ideal for them in a lot of ways.

[Anonymous]

Our pool offers 7am practice and it’s the most attended practice. There are a ton of kids in each lane, but I don’t think that hinders progress.
What hinder progress is that my kids go to 7am practice, all day outdoors camp, and then swim meets on Monday night. My oldest has asked to have a summer babysitter instead of camps for June and July next year so he can go to 8am practice and relax on Mondays.

[Anonymous]

For all the moaning in the DMV, my coworker lives in Dallas, Texas and his kids’ summer swim MEETS are on Tuesdays at 10am.

[Anonymous]

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.

I have three kids, all of whom do summer swim. Camps are usually 9 - 4:30/5 and a 5-10 minute drive from the pool. We've done either a 7:45am or 5pm practice, both of which work. They may be a few minutes late to the latter, but it's not a big deal. DH and I both have reasonable flexibility in our schedules, which we chose as a trade-off for other things. I know not all positions have that option.

And, yes, the kids are tired at the end of the day, but not in a bad way. They have a lot of fun at both swimming and camp - and they all sleep very well!

[Anonymous]

My kids are beyond the age of needing daycares or camps. We did some years with them, and the later years with an au pair or babysitter. Looking back, I feel there are very few day camps that are worth missing summer swim for. If you have 2 or more kids, a sitter for 6 weeks is a better deal.

If there is a camp that your child “must” do (like a riding camp or something really special) you either sacrifice a week of swim practice, or find one later in the summer after swim is over.

Most summer day camps are really nothing special at all, so the kids won’t miss out on much. Just have the sitter take them to swim practice in the morning and they can all come home and have lunch and have a chill afternoon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our team’s evening practices start at 6:00. For many years those were the only practices my kids went to after camp. Now they are old enough to ride bikes to am practice. We have 200 kids in the team.

It is very unfortunate that other pools can’t/wont allow this. So many members of our team have 2 working parents so it’s very necessary for many families. I’ve always appreciated the effort made to be inclusive.

using the language of inclusivity surrounding swim practice times gets under my skin. An inclusive team is one that makes it possible for children with learning differences, or physical differences to participate- e.g. immutable characteristics. An inclusive team is one that offers a range of volunteering options for parents so if you have young children you don't necessarily have to time etc. But practice times? No- all families have choices in how they structure their childcare, you choose to structure childcare to be solely inflexible camps- that's fine- but you don't get to claim that swim team is not inclusive of you. You have chosen to value camp more highly than swim team. Your choice- but the rest of us don't have to rearrange the schedules to suit your preferences. I'm all about inclusivity- I'm not about catering to everyone's preferences.
And I say this as a two parent working family- who chooses to prioritize swim team and structures summer childcare to support swim team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our team’s evening practices start at 6:00. For many years those were the only practices my kids went to after camp. Now they are old enough to ride bikes to am practice. We have 200 kids in the team.

It is very unfortunate that other pools can’t/wont allow this. So many members of our team have 2 working parents so it’s very necessary for many families. I’ve always appreciated the effort made to be inclusive.

using the language of inclusivity surrounding swim practice times gets under my skin. An inclusive team is one that makes it possible for children with learning differences, or physical differences to participate- e.g. immutable characteristics. An inclusive team is one that offers a range of volunteering options for parents so if you have young children you don't necessarily have to time etc. But practice times? No- all families have choices in how they structure their childcare, you choose to structure childcare to be solely inflexible camps- that's fine- but you don't get to claim that swim team is not inclusive of you. You have chosen to value camp more highly than swim team. Your choice- but the rest of us don't have to rearrange the schedules to suit your preferences. I'm all about inclusivity- I'm not about catering to everyone's preferences.
And I say this as a two parent working family- who chooses to prioritize swim team and structures summer childcare to support swim team.

From Oxford dictionary - see definition number 2. Pretty sure this was the intended use of the word. “Inclusive of all people participating in the swim team.” This word has multiple definitions.

adjective: inclusive
1.
including or covering all the services, facilities, or items normally expected or required.
"the price is inclusive, with few incidentals"
Similar:
all-in
all-inclusive
with everything included
comprehensive
in toto
overall
full
all-around
across the board
umbrella
blanket
catch-all
all-encompassing
all-embracing
without exception
Opposite:
exclusive
containing (a specified element) as part of a whole.
"all prices are inclusive of taxes"
Similar:
including
incorporating
taking in
counting
taking account of
comprising
covering
embracing
Opposite:
excluding
with the inclusion of the extreme limits stated.
"between the ages of 55 and 59 inclusive"
2.
not excluding any of the parties or groups involved in something.
"only an inclusive peace process will end the conflict"
3.
aiming to provide equal access to opportunities and resources for people who might otherwise be excluded or marginalized, such as those having physical or intellectual disabilities or belonging to other minority groups.
"this is a testament to the inclusive environment fostered at our school"
(of language) deliberately avoiding usages that could be seen as excluding a particular social group, for example avoiding the use of masculine pronouns to cover both men and women.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our pool offers 7am practice and it’s the most attended practice. There are a ton of kids in each lane, but I don’t think that hinders progress.
What hinder progress is that my kids go to 7am practice, all day outdoors camp, and then swim meets on Monday night. My oldest has asked to have a summer babysitter instead of camps for June and July next year so he can go to 8am practice and relax on Mondays.

My kids skip practice on the morning of their B-meet because otherwise it's too long a day, but they still struggle to get to practice the next morning. We've had a couple of B-meets end around 10 PM, making a 7 AM practice too early for an 8 yo.