SUMMER SCHEDULE SURVIVAL

Summer Childcare is a Puzzle With No Perfect Solution (And That's Okay)

---

School ends. Suddenly you're responsible for forty hours of childcare while working forty hours. The math doesn't work. It never works. You already knew this, but July hits different. You're in it now.

I'm not here to sell you summer camp packages or tell you about the magical screen-free nature hikes that will bond you forever. I'm here to tell you what actually works when you're a single working mom in Portland trying to keep your kid alive, relatively enriched, and not completely losing your mind.

The Real Summer Childcare Landscape

Let's start with the honest part: summer childcare costs money. All of it. Camps, sitters, programs, daycare ramping up to full-time. It's expensive. If you're single, you're funding all of it on one income. That's the constraint we're working with.

My options this summer:

• Keep my kid in daycare full-time (expensive but reliable)

• Mix daycare with camps (still expensive, more variety)

• Ask for help from family or friends (if you have it)

• Shuffle work schedule and childcare gaps (sustainable for approximately two days)

• Remote work days when my kid is with me (impossible and doesn't actually work)

Probably your options look similar. All of them cost you something. Time, money, sanity, or some brutal combination.

What Actually Works

I'm keeping my kid in daycare full-time this July. Not because it's ideal. Because it's the only thing that lets me work full hours without guilt spiraling every single day. That's my call. You might make a different one. Both are right.

Here's what I've learned from doing this for four years:

1. Stop calling it "summer" like it's a season where different rules apply. It's not. July is a month where childcare looks the same as June, and you keep working, and your kid goes to camp or daycare or your mom's house. It's a continuation, not a vacation.

2. Camps are real but they're not cheap and they're not magical. Some kids love them. Some kids hate them. My kid is cool with camp one week. After that, they're done. We mix it. Daycare the rest of the time. That's our rhythm.

3. The "enrichment" guilt is a trap. Your kid doesn't need six different summer programs. They need reliable care, some fun, food that shows up on time, and a parent who isn't fried. Coloring books at home count.

4. Your work schedule is probably flexible somewhere, even if it doesn't feel like it. Maybe you pick up earlier on Wednesday. Maybe you take a WFH day on Friday (even if WFH with a kid is not actually work). Maybe you chunk your hours differently. Find the two small moves that create breathing room, then stop trying to solve the whole thing.

5. Babysitters are expensive and worth it if you can swing it. One trusted person who can pop over on a Friday afternoon or cover a gap when daycare is closed changes everything. Even once a week. Start there.

6. Other single moms are your actual infrastructure. Not Instagram, not advice columns. Other moms figuring it out parallel to you. If you know one, ask her what she's doing. You'll learn more from "my kid goes to camp Tuesday and Thursday and we're winging it the rest" than from a hundred Pinterest boards.

7. July is a slog for a reason. It's hot, routines are broken, your kid is bored or overstimulated, you're trying to keep your job on track, and there's nothing aspirational about any of it. Accept the slog. You're not failing if summer looks like survival mode. That's what it is.

The Permission You Actually Need

Your kid will be fine if you work full-time in the summer. Your kid will be fine if they spend more time in daycare or camp than doing enrichment activities with you. Your kid will be fine if screen time doubles and homemade lunches turn into whatever is easy.

What your kid actually needs is a functional parent. Someone present in the hours you are together. Someone who isn't running on fumes trying to be a full-time worker and a full-time summer camp director at once.

That parent is you. And you don't have to solve summer differently than you solve the rest of the year.

You just have to survive it. The rest follows.