“Let me show you my spreadsheet.” That’s how the email from Kelli Nori, a Global Tech account manager and mom of two from McKinney began. Last summer, Nori’s oldest child had just aged out of the preschool program where she used to spend the days during the summer while her parents were at work. After finishing kindergarten, her parents needed to find somewhere different for her to go during the day. That’s how the summer child care spreadsheet began.
First in priority among the details is driving distance—minutes, not miles. “It had to be 15 minutes or less,” explains Nori. “You may not realize it, but 12 minutes is significantly better than 15.” Spoken like a DFW veteran. There are three tabs: one for full-day, week-long programs, one for part-day, week-long programs, and one for single-day, drop-in programs.
Programs are arranged in columns by date, from the end of school to the end of the summer. Each column has detailed information about the program: the hours, the dates, days of the week, cost, whether lunch is provided or not and any special items they need to bring, like a swimsuit and towel, sports equipment, art supplies, etc. Who can drop off and pick up among friends, family, and neighbors. Lastly, any plusses about the program, like field trips or special activities.
Using this matrix, Nori and her husband were able to piece together summer childcare for their oldest last year, week by week, half-day by half-day. “I think I kind of got caught up in [wanting] it to be this cool experience for her and let her try a bunch of different things, and it was actually insane. It was the worst decision I could have ever made. We did a different camp every single week.”
“Don’t do too much. Don’t overcomplicate it. Find something that checks the majority of your boxes and get as much of that as possible.”
Nori said the low point of the summer was when she forgot to pick her daughter up from a particular camp at 1pm and arrived 20 minutes late. “I’m not going to do it again this year. I’m going to find one place and she’s going to go the entire summer.”
RELATED: Need a laugh? Read our humor columnist’s Childcare Questionnaire
Reordering Priorities for Summer Child Care
The summer gap brings an entirely new struggle to considerations for childcare. At school, kids have a whole day filled with friends and learning. In the summer, the days and hours stretch out in one unstructured mass. Parents worry about the summer skills slide, making sure their child spends at least some time reading and getting exercise.
And what about friends? You want them to socialize so they don’t forget how to be around people. And of course, not too much screen time, but it’s not totally avoidable.
With many employers taking work-from-home options back off the table, the search for summer childcare is more competitive than ever. In rural areas it’s even harder; for every one child who gets a spot in a summer program, two more would have been enrolled if a program were available, according to a 2020 report by the Afterschool Alliance. Searching for care seems to start earlier each year, with many summer camps enrolling in January.
RELATED: A High-Low Look at the Cost of Child Care
How 4 Local Moms Fill the Summer
The moms I spoke to have a wide variety of jobs, from sales to tech to healthcare to media. Most of them had somewhat flexible schedules, allowing them to leave and pick up or drop off their kids at odd times (looking at you, affordable day camp option that ends at 2pm), or even allowing them to work remotely some of the time. But they still all landed on different solutions for their families.
1. Summer-Long Camps
Nori is trying out summer-long camp option with their gym this year for her oldest, and her younger daughter will attend a program through her preschool. “[It’s] not going to necessarily be cheap,” she says.
RELATED: Search DFWChild’s Camps Directory
2. Recreation Centers & Day Camps
Amanda Warner is a mom of two who lives in Murphy. She spends a lot of her day in her car as a medical device rep for a pharmaceutical company. This is the first year both of her kids have been in school, and Warner spent many hours researching options and calling around for summer program availability. Then she got an email about a program at her local recreation center.
“We just lucked out,” she says. “We got that email in the middle of it, and we were like, “done!” The kids will do a combination of the summer-long recreation center program and a one-day camp break each.
3. Nannies & Co-Parents
Alexis Patterson, our former DFWChild managing editor and a mom of three (with two under the age of one) from Grapevine, works entirely from home as a strategic content manager but needs hands-on help year-round to make it work. They have a full-time nanny for the babies that they are keeping through the summer.
“They’re at an age where they won’t go to people who they don’t know. So if we didn’t already have her established, summers would be nightmare,” she says. She plans to keep her tween entertained with playdates when he’s not at his dad’s house. Because Patterson and her ex-husband share custody, she’s hesitant to set up too many other activities during her son’s time at her house.
“That adds another layer of complexity because when he is here, I don’t want to ship him off to day camp all day.”
4. Babysitters
Kelly Ray, a physical therapist and mom of two in Wylie, relied on full-time sitters she didn’t necessarily know well in the past, and sometimes wasn’t happy with the care. The sitter leads she does have for this year are still figuring out their own summer schedules. She’s also looking into a program at her kids’ school, to their chagrin. “It’s still a work in progress,” she says.
Of course, all of these options end up being best-case scenarios, as most parents can attest. One summer, I had a sitter lined up who raised her price to twice the agreed-on amount a week before summer started and also wanted use of my car. I had a college student who planned to live with us and help out with the kids 6 hours a day leave without notice the second week and never return. And I took a terrible paying job at a church once simply because my work hours aligned with their summer program days.
RELATED: Browse DFWChild’s Child Care Directory
Ask Your Mom Friends for Help
I remember being left alone with my brother all day in the summer when we were 10 and 6. My dad traveled five days a week, and my mom worked 30 minutes away. We couldn’t answer the phone, door, or go outside. That’s probably illegal now, but what are families supposed to do?
Dual-income households have made up the majority of families since the early 1980s, but public policy still functions as if we all have aunts, uncles, grandmas and grandpas nearby to keep an eye on us, and kids can play in the street until dark.
RELATED: The Pros & Cons of Using Family for Child Care
If this is your first summer finding childcare, find a mom with older kids and she will be happy to share her tips, tricks—and maybe even her spreadsheet. Your local experienced mom will know all the programs in your area and will be able to tell you how she made it through all 10 to 12 summers before her kids could stay on their own. And she might even know a reliable teen babysitter or two.
“I think the best advice I’d have is don’t do too much,” advises Nori. “Don’t overcomplicate it. Find something that checks the majority of your boxes and get as much of that as possible.”
More Ideas for Finding Summer Child Care & Activities
Still on your hunt for summer child care? Here are some ideas for where to look.
• dfwchild.com/camps
• Schools
• YMCA
• Recreation centers
• Gyms
• Churches
• Parks departments
• Nanny (consider a nanny share with friends or neighbors)
• Libraries
• Nonprofits like Boys & Girls Clubs
• Teen centers
• Dance studios
• Music studios
• Local theaters
• Zoos
• Museums
• Cultural centers
• Historical societies
• Kids’ party places
RELATED: Browse DFWChild’s Child Care Directory
Top image: iStock
