5 Things Filling My Summer Childcare Gaps
5 Things Filling My Summer Childcare Gaps
Some lil' treats since we can't have systemic change.
My kids finished school at 11am on Tuesday, which means we’re wrapping up two full weeks of mostly half days and then no days—but there is also no camp yet! If you want a full rundown on all of the systemic issues that create this annual parenting conundrum, check out
’s exhaustive summer reporting.There have been years when stretches like this almost broke me (see: Covid and the year I thought June 30 was a good book deadline!). This year, I’ll admit, I have a lot of privilege in navigating these weeks and it hasn’t been nearly as bad. I work from home and control my own hours, so I can scale back a little and do fun summer stuff; we’ve been swimming at the local lake, went to the Natural History Museum, and have gotten ice cream so many times. And when I have to work (because even “flexible” jobs still need to…happen) my kids are now old enough to entertain themselves for long stretches. Still, the perpetual split focus of these weeks is a weird added layer to navigate, especially as a single mom. It’s a lot of gear-shifting, and trying to find my laser focus when I do sit down to work, so I can then put it more fully away when I’m done.
Obviously what we really need are systemic solutions like mandated paid leave, government subsidized summer childcare and everything else Katherine talks about. But that failing, here are five things that are making this stretch easier (and even more fun!) for me:
