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| Trying out our borrowed tent |
Our summer doesn't start until 17th July. It lasts basically 7 weeks, with school starting again on a Thursday (WHYYY).
I realized I have sort of been dreading summer. I fear that all the small pockets of Rachel time are going to disappear - my Friday morning twins at nursery time will be gone, and instead of nap time being downtime it will be big kids at home time. Andy is taking off Mondays with the big kids all summer, which means more people potentially at home. All the playgroups are off for summer, so there is a chance more of twin childcare will be home-based as well.
I started with a week by week view:
Week 1: 3 day workweek, brother visit, mom here, Mom and brother big kid childcare for 2 days, Thursday off with everyone
Week 2: Family Camping Trip (this may be a terrible idea)
Week 3: 4 days Work/Local Camp (Friday all kids)
Week 4: 4 days Work/Local Camp (Friday all kids)
Week 5: 4 days Work/More expensive camp (Friday all kids)
Week 6: 3 days work, Dad visit, Thursday big kids, (Friday all kids+Dad)
Week 7: Bank Holiday Monday, watch big kids tuesday, Lily's Birthday Wednesday (Andy off), Rachel Day(School starts) on Thursday, watch twins Friday, fly to New York by myself Saturday.
I know could be excited to funmom all of this but I see a lot of packed lunches and suncream in the days above, and a lot of rachel driving (more expensive camp is 15 minutes away).
Also, I am pretty good at the 4 day workweek, but taking a day off means it's a 3 day workweek and that feels so short. I didn't realize that I'm taking 2 short weeks and 2 full weeks off over the 7 week period, and I probably need to adjust my work expectations accordingly. There are only 18 working days for me between July 17th and September 9th. I'll need to be pretty clear on how I'm going to use those days, otherwise I'm going to spend most of summer feeling very behind or like I'm failing in work.
I am excited that the summer ends with a Rachel Day and then I also am going to New York for a wedding which felt a million years away but is actually not that far away at all. I need to get something to wear.
Since I now recently learned I am a human person who needs downtime, I've decided Saturdays from 6am to 10am will be my time every week. At least that means I have one four hour block of life.
I also have the option of sending big kids to more expensive camp on a Fridays if they want to go and if I need it easier. They usually love more expensive camp, but it is more expensive (about £100 a day for the two of them, in case you're curious!). It doesn't open up much Rachel time but maybe it will make a Friday more calm.
After my planning session I'm feeling slightly less terrified of summer. We'll have to see if this translates to having a better summer.
I guess it does mean I'm making progress on the Rachel Goal of "Build a better planning system for my life" so that's good?
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Summer planning is interesting as a working (non teacher) parent. I realize that from a childcare standpoint, being a teacher means you don't have to do summer camp for kids, but from a general flexibility standpoint being a teacher seems far less family friendly than being middleing corporate person. On Wednesday during the heatwave our assistant headteachers kid's school was closed, and she said "it's ok, a friend is watching the kids" while when our school closed I just left work early.
Our friend has two young kids and is a high school math teacher. He has a term time contract with nursery, so when school ends, he pivots immediately into childcare. If someone told me I could have 6 more week of holiday a year but I could only spend it watching toddlers during school holidays and couldn't take midweek days off for me or for sick kids I would probably say "no thanks" and stick with my current set up. Which I guess makes sense because that' the set up I chose.
How long is your summer? Do you take a lot of time off over summer? Do you always have a lot of "time off" and then kids are home so you end up with more "time on"? On a scale from 1 to asleep, how tired would you be watching two year old twins and a five and seven year old all day?
This is Lisa. I would for sure spend 50/kid to send the big kids to camp on Fridays. I think that is money well spent to have them out of the house.
ReplyDeleteOur summer is so so long. It’s 12 weeks. The kids go to 3 weeks of day camp at our church ($350/kid/week), 3 weeks at my parents lake home (this coming week + the last 2 weeks before school but us parents will be there with them for the first week for our annual family lake vacation), and they are otherwise in the school summer program ($250/kid/week). So they have childcare for nearly the entire summer. But it’s a necessity for us since we both work full time and I cannot get much done when they are home. I am glad this is our set up as I am not built to be a fun summer mom. I fill our weekends with fun activities but come Monday, I am glad they have somewhere else to be so Phil and I can solely focus on work.
I am glad you have some Rachel time blocks carved out!!
Hi this is Daria.
ReplyDelete1. You are going camping!!!!!!!!! Eeeeeeeeee!!!!!
2. Well done on Rachel time boundaries.
3. We are spending a lot of money on Italy so the kids are only doing camps for one week in August; 425 and $400 per week.
4. Since my kids are older (6 and 8) I do have time to myself in the summer even if they are at the house. I shamelessly read my books around them, garden and go to the gym - they stay at the house. But we also have things they love on rotation: library, municipal pool, beach, hikes and playgrounds.
My kids have a 12 week summer. I am taking 2 weeks off over the summer but I only work 3 days a week so I can fit in weekend trips where we leave on Thursday afternoon without taking time off. I recently returned to work after 4 years of being a stay at home mom and I’m trying to figure out the right balance of childcare and free time over the summer. Next week my kids were not scheduled to go to camp my husband and I were going to tag team with work and childcare (my kids are 7 and 10 so it’s do able) but then I asked myself what would it look like if this was easy and the answer was they would go to camp they like and so I signed them up.
ReplyDeleteLooking at the whole summer helps me set expectations. I’m glad you have a block of personal time to look forward to each week. Looking after the kids at those ages is a tiring prospect.
Uff, I can imagine that summer is such a juggle for working parents - teachers or not - it seems like there is no good scenario.
ReplyDeleteI don't have kids but I also don't think about "summer" because it's usually just regular work days for me. I often don't take a lot of time off (because I travel to see my family at other times of the year), so summer is as uneventful or exciting as I make it to be. I do enjoy the longer, lighter days... although I can see how that adds extra care time to parents of younger kids, if they stay up longer.
I would really struggle with the summer heat where you are! I think you travel to europe at perfect times of year
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