Why do working parents dread summer?
From CareerBuilder.com
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It's summertime and the living is anything but easy for working parents who must find child care while school is out.
Julie and Craig Cashman have three children and have been doing the summer child-care shuffle for years.
The first summer, they hired a Swedish au pair whom the Cashmans described as a godsend. Full of enthusiasm, love and integrity, Trude took the children on outings, played games and did crafts while managing to cook healthful meals and keep the house reasonably clean.
"It was sheer bliss," Julie Cashman recalls. "There wasn't a dry eye in the house when she left in September."
The following summer the Cashmans went through the same agency -- with different results.
This au pair was ornery and unmotivated, they said. She was also demanding. After she insisted on taking over the master bedroom, the Cashmans decided to send her packing. The couple wound up relying on relatives and staggering their work vacations so each could be home for a few weeks to watch the kids.
Burned by their au pair-from-hell experience, the Cashmans since have tried a series of summer schools and day camps.
"It's a great way for the kids to have social experiences and learn new skills," Julie Cashman says. "However, it is a less flexible alternative.
"And of course before signing your children up for a camp, make sure it's really a program they'll want to go to every day. For example, while soccer camp may sound exciting, your kids might think differently after playing eight hours a day in the grueling heat."
Creative solutions
What options are other parents choosing? According to the Urban Institute's National Survey of America's Families, about a third of children (ages 6 to 12) with working moms are in an organized program or school during the summer; a little more than a third are in the care of relatives; 6 percent are cared for in a nonrelative's home; 8 percent are being cared for in their home by a nanny or baby sitter; and 11 percent are either alone or with a sibling younger than 13.
Options abound -- child-care centers, summer school and day camps -- and each varies in cost and potential richness. And many parents find there's no correlation between what you pay and the value you get.
For example, Sandra Gross says her son got more out of the local YMCA camp, which cost $30 a day, than he did staying at home with his $80-a-day baby sitter.
Gross also says she likes organized programs because she gets a tax break through her company's dependent care account. "Most baby sitters won't let you report their income, so you can't take advantage of the tax savings," she says.
Other families have gotten creative. For example, when the high cost of summer child care made Christine Peterson wonder if it even made sense for her to work, she organized a co-op with four other working parents. Each took one vacation day a week and alternated caring for all the children with the help of a neighborhood teen.
"The kids say this has been the best summer of their life," Peterson says. "And I've saved close to $5,000 in camp costs."
Helpful hints
Whichever type of summer care you choose, the National Child Care Information Center and Resource Referral Agency advises choosing a child-care provider that:
is responsive to the needs of your child;establishes a safe, nurturing and stimulating setting for children to grow and learn;works in partnership with the family; andfocuses on activities your child enjoys.After years of piecing together a summer care program that meets her children's needs and fits the family's budget, Julie Cashman says she found that a combination of family trips, camps, relatives' visits and baby sitters is often the best solution.
And her daughter Emily -- who is a summer caregiver herself -- offers parents this advice: "Think about what kind of experience and memories you want your child to have. If you look at it that way, 'only for the summer' takes on a whole new meaning."
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