tl;dr The state of school-age child care is dismal, and we need to spend a lot more time and energy trying to figure it out.
The past couple of weeks, work feels a little different. Kids in the background (and sometimes the foreground) of Zoom calls, friends and clients telling me they're waking up at 4am to get some work done, haggard parents apologizing for being unavailable at random work-day hours...
If you're a parent of a school-age kid, you know what I'm talking about. Summer is really rough for working parents - after we're already beat down from the hellscape of school activities that the last month of school.
If you don't have school age kids, let me give you a little taste.
*The scenario below mirrors my own experiences as a person who has the privilege of working at home, having flexibility, owning a car, and being able to pay for camp and other activities. This is often the best-case scenario. People in other situations may find themselves having to choose between missing work or leaving their children unattended.*
November 18th, 7:59 am: sit in front of computer hovering over the submit button so you can make sure to get a spot in the outdoor camp you can't really afford.
*Repeat for 4 more camps that will all fill up within 10 seconds.
May: frantically start creating calendars and spreadsheets that detail where your 6 year old will be at every minute for the summer.
It looks something like this:
Monday
8:00-9:30 ???
9:30-2:00 camp
2:00-2:30 drive from camp to swim lessons
2:30-3:45 swim lessons
3:45-4:15 drive from swim lessons to friend's house
4:15-5:30 play at friend's house
Tuesday
8-8:45 ???
8:45-1:30 camp
1:30-2:00 drive from camp to my house (with 3 friends)
2:00-4:30 try to work while kids play at our house
Wednesday
All day: Wing it. Hope kid is able to find something somewhat educational on YouTube so I can get some work done.
You get the idea... and that's not to mention the first week of summer, last week of summer, and 4th of July week when everything is closed.
School-age care is incredibly important - the school schedule does not match working parents' schedules, and this is especially clear in the summer.
But, we don't talk about it much in the child care space. Why? I'm not sure, but I think it's time to change that.
Tell me your school-age care stories.
Give me your ideas on what an ideal system would look like.
Tell me how you think we can move the needle.
