11/6/2023 0 Comments Do kids need a long summer![]() Q: Am I a bad parent if I clean up after my kids? If you decide that teaching your kids to clean up their toys is important to you, remember that it is OK to start small. So they stay at home, and give up work, potentially sacrificing some income, or putting their career or their job on hold.” “Parents want to guarantee their kid is going to have a good experience, be safe, and have the enriching one-on-one interactions that young kids need. “It is pretty clear to us that child care isn’t working for anyone, and you really see that in the summer, when parents are left with an impossible choice,” Novoa said. When covering these costs isn’t an option, Novoa has found that many parents are deciding to take pay cuts or make job changes in order to be able to watch their children themselves. Some parents struggle with finding child care over the summer, some parents struggle with paying for child care over the summer, and some struggle with both.ĬAP estimated that a typical family of four can expect to pay upward of $3,000 for camps and other summer activities, which amounts to 20% of the family’s take-home pay during the season. She’s been studying the impact of summer break on American families and has found it be a signficant challenge for many. How are parents handling all this? Not very well, according to Cristina Novoa, senior policy analyst for early childhood policy at the Center for American Progress, a liberal public policy research and advocacy. According to the National Summer Learning Association, low-income children are more likely than their wealthier peers to experience summer learning loss, and fall behind in school as a result. If that doesn’t work out, and it often doesn’t, they will need to come up with alternate, affordable, plans, which are also likely to be poor quality. If parents can’t afford camp, and many can’t, they need to either seek out one of the few spots at a subsidized camp, or an equally rare camp scholarship. Lastly, parents must rearrange their lives to get their kids to camp, while finding a way to fill the inevitable gaps between the camp and school schedule. Then, parents must come up with thousands of dollars to pay for the camp, or camps, assuming they got in. First, parents must arrange for summer activities in advance, securing a place at in-demand camps and filling out a high tide of forms. ![]() But during the summer, the challenge intensifies. This is a struggle all year, as most schools end far before the average work day. Having kids makes you happier - once they've moved out Happy parents playing with their daughter in the park. Together, these trends mean that, in most families, there is no one around to watch the kids during summer or pick them up at the end of the day. Also, 1 in 5 children currently live with a single parent, a number that has doubled in recent decades. ![]() Moms and dads feel time-crunched and cash-strapped, all the while worrying that our kids aren’t doing enough.Īccording to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the majority of two-parent households today are also dual-income households, in which both parents work. Now, summer is the time of year when the pressures of modern parenting hit a crescendo. But changes to the way we work and play have made the season untenable for many. Summer break is a system built for another time, during which a 10-week break could be slotted somewhere between “opportunity” and “minor inconvenience” for parents. Only the return to school can save us from this mess. It marks the end of having somewhere safe and free to leave our children during the day while we work the end of a reliable schedule that has wormed its way into acceptance by our supervisors and colleagues and the end of reliable schedule that has wormed its way into acceptance by our change-averse children. Getting your kids organized for the new school yearįor grown-ups, summer is the antithesis of freedom, a season we look forward to ending once it begins. A student walks carrying a new transparent backpack.
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