Sometime in mid-spring this year, my wife and I began to panic.
We were too overwhelmed to track down summer camps and get on waiting lists to register, and the spots were already full. We had to make some decisions, and fast.
Then we had a crazy idea. What if we just… did nothing?
NO Summer Campno formal childcare at all. Would we all turn on each other at the end of the summer? Or could we somehow find a way to survive while working from home? We decided to try and find out.
We have decided to keep our eldest at home this summer
We have two daughters, a 9-year-old and a 3-year-old. Our younger daughter is still in Day care We decided to keep our eldest at home all week and keep her schedule relatively free.
There were several reasons why this made sense for our family.
First, there was the cost. Most day camps in our area cost at least $200 a week (and that’s a conservative estimate). Add up a few of them and Costs for day care can really get out of control, especially at a time when our budget is already suffering.
To make matters worse, our daughter didn’t seem particularly enthusiastic about most things. Camp Options out there. Many of the affordable ones are souped-up daycare centers. Specialty camps that better suited her interests, like oceanography camp, were even more expensive. She preferred to hang out with her own friends, so it seemed silly to break the bank on camps she didn’t even want to go to.
Eventually, as she grew older, she became super sporty committed. This summer she was on the swim team at our community pool and had soccer practice a few nights a week. Another important factor in this grand experiment was making sure she was rested for the sport and not exhausted from go-going all day.
The author kept his daughter at home this summer and she was unable to attend summer camp or daycare. Courtesy of Evan Porter
My daughter and I spent more time together than usual.
This plan worked well because I got a lot Time with my daughter this summer.
One idea that has always stuck with me is the myth of quality time. It says that you can’t plan important moments with your loved ones; you just have to spend a lot of time with them and be ready for those meaningful moments when they arise.
That’s what I experienced with my daughter this summer. Not every day was a magical bonding experience. However, when I look back, I remember how I laughed while Play video games afternoons together, daily lunches with her, secret trips to the pool after work and the few moments when she actually wanted to talk.
It was also nice that our days moved more slowly. Since our little one didn’t have a set time to be at preschool and there were no camps to rush to, everyone in the household was able to sleep in a little longer. We also had plenty of time to get ready for evening soccer practice and prepare dinner.
It was a nice break for us and, more importantly, for her. She works hard all year round in school, sports and clubs. Even when she was bored and sitting in front of the TV, she kept telling me she was glad to have a break.
To make the whole thing work, we also have some Help from grandparents. Once or twice a week, one of my daughter’s grandmas would take her out for a few hours to the store or to lunch so I could focus on my work. I know they all enjoyed this time together that is so hard to come by during the school year.
To survive the summer, his daughter’s grandmothers sometimes looked after her, the author says. Courtesy of Evan Porter
Not everything went smoothly
I went to a few summer camps as a kid, but I also spent many summers running around the neighborhood with friends “until the streetlights came on,” as the old cliche goes.
In theory, I thought my daughter would do a lot of it this summer. But it didn’t quite work out.
One thing I forgot is that we live in Atlanta – and it is WAY too hot to be outside most of the time in the summer. The other part of the theory that didn’t translate into practice was that most of my daughter’s friends would be away at camp or on vacation themselves. There were a few play dates, but most of the time no one was there.
It defeats the purpose of an old-fashioned summer when no one else is having one.
I am a little embarrassed to admit that my daughter ended up watching a lot more TV and more iPad time than we had originally planned. After all, I have a flexible job as a blogger, freelance writer and author; but at some point I had to pull myself together and get some work done. With no friends and the temperature outside being sweltering, television was a big help.
I must also admit that while I really enjoyed the quality time we spent together, there is such a thing as too much time with the kids. I felt frustrated and claustrophobic at times having my daughter on my hip all summer while trying to juggle work and other things. Household duties.
Ultimately, our family didn’t fare well during our summer without childcare, but we survived. And we saved a fortune by skipping summer camp—which only worked for our household because my wife and I both work from home and I have a lot of flexibility.
The ups and downs of this summer already seem like a distant memory as we adjust to the hectic school routine again. Next year my two girls will be out of school and we will be faced with the same dilemma again – only twice! I’m not sure how we will handle it yet, but this summer experiment has been a great learning experience for our family.
