Working Parents - how do you handle summers?
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Anonymous
Any decision made at 5pm won’t be acted on until next day so why not have meeting first thing in morning and then executed? |
Anonymous
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pp from 12:41/12:56 here.
And for what it's worth, my spouse is a government employee that often has to work beyond such core hours, because some of his counterparts are in other time zones. |
Anonymous
Did you quote the wrong post? Your response makes no sense. |
Anonymous
Yes. Often camps are 10-4 or just shorter than my work hours, especially if I must travel. And, while more rare in summer, kids do get sick or not feel well and need to be picked up early or stay home. Not the PP, but my kids never were in full day camps all summer. There was swim team, half-day camps, annd weeks where they could sleep in and do whatever they wanted. I view my full time sitter as an employee. |
Anonymous
PP was saying that many industries have meetings past 4pm. I was saying why?? They have the meeting then the day ends and nothing gets done anyways till the next day. Time zone alignment is a poor choice. At 5pm the only time zones that active are US western time zones, Hawaii and Alaska, which could have met for a 3pm meeting easily. It’s 6am in Japan at 5pm, not too early for their work day. It’s “work day” time for most of the empty Pacific at that hour, so regular 5pm meetings make no sense. 
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Anonymous
Of course I can. But it’s really not the norm. And it’s not about work. It’s about meetings. Most of us work outside of core hours, but there is an expectation that most meetings requiring multiple stakeholders happen during the middle of the day … which also helps with time zone issues. I absolutely do not schedule meetings after 4 PM that require more than one other person to call in. It’s not worth it. I don’t like working in environments where everything is an all hands emergency at 5 PM. No thanks. |
Anonymous
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When kids were young (early elementary) they were in camps, often with a bus and/or aftercare or elaborate carpools with friends with working parents who shared the burden. Some years I was able to work PT.
Mid to late elementary school we got a summer babysitter - one year on our own, a few years shared with neighbors. They’d go to swim team in the morning then hang at home, in neighborhood, or at pool with babysitter for rest of day. In both scenarios DH or I often had to end early/start late a day or two a week. Luckily we have flexible jobs. Sometimes family friends or grandparents would help if, for example, we had work travel. Usually I’d take a couple weeks off in August (luckily have accrued lots of vacation). By middle school they were largely on their own (with swim practice and some weeks of camp); luckily I work at home most days so there’s someone around to yell at them to go outside or clean up after themselves, but definitely more electronics than ideal. While I’m in the house I’m pretty much on calls all day so not really interacting with them. Lots of time at the pool, which is luckily bikeable. |
Anonymous
Clearly you’re not from around here! Swim team is a cultural/community activity in this region. It’s my one of my kids favorite things, huge source of community in our neighborhood, and the thing they will remember about their childhood summers. Yes, it’s swimming laps, but also making skits, and having donut parties, and making plans with a big group of kids - their age, younger, and older to have fun all day at the pool. The swimming sometimes feels peripheral. It can be hard for working parents to pull off and their kids miss out on what often is the summer focus of all their friends. Luckily our pool is pretty working-parent friendly because by age 8 or so my kids were insisting that summer plans, including camps and vacations, be planned around the swim team schedule. That’s not to say there aren’t other ways kids can have great summers, but around here there’s definitely a reason families try to prioritize it. A good portion of my adult friends are swim team families and it’s definitely the summer social nexus for neighborhood kids into high school. |
Anonymous
| My kids are going to sleep away camp as soon as they are old enough (probably around age 7 or 8). I know it’s $$$$ but totally worth it. Plus your kid gets a whole new separate set of “camp friends” |
Anonymous
Huh? I work FT and I feel the same as the PP. I like and enjoy being around my kids. |
Anonymous
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My kid is in MS now but still can’t drive herself anywhere.
Single early elem we’ve done a combo of PT sitter and a few camps to break up the summer. |
Anonymous
Yes, but it's hell on working parents. Hence why PP said sleep away camp was the dream. PP felt the need to post their holier than thou bull shit about how some people "actually like their kids." That was an insulting response and reeks of SAHP superiority. |
Anonymous
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DH has dumped it all on me since we had our first.
One month of sleep away camp to preserve my sanity. Then swim team around that. Home the rest of the time doing academic enrichment and reading and, yes, gaming with a reasonable degree of supervision. |
Anonymous
| Oh, I forgot to mention, I WFH exclusively in the summer and have for years. |
Anonymous
| My kids are older, but like one of the PPs, the best summers were those where a job switch coincided with summer. This happened 2-3 times. We had so much fun, traveled to visit family in Europe, there were so many things to do. Now, I work remote, thanks to the pandemic and younger generations in management, this is a real options. Again, going to Europe in the summer. The summers when I had to work (most summers), were not that great. I put the kids in camps because my spouse who didn’t work, couldn’t handle the kids. But at least he picked them up around 3pm so that was worth something. They did lots of camps: tennis, riding, theater, swimming, skating, etc. I have no idea how 2 working parents can figure this out. It’s a disgrace that society does this to (mostly) women. |