Child Care - Summer Care
In this article we're going to discuss child care and some tips
on what to do when the summer comes and you need to get away
from it all for a while.
Let's be honest, no matter how devoted you are as a parent and
no matter how much you love you kid, eventually you reach a
point, especially if you're a full time stay at home parent,
where you need to get away for a while. And usually the best
time to do this is in the summer when both parents might be off
work.
This is actually quite common in families where one or both
parents are school teachers and get the summers off. No sooner
June 21 hits and they're off to somewhere. But what do you do
when you want to get away and have a small child, or even not so
small child, that needs to be taken care of?
Well, option number one is you take the kid with you. But that
kind of defeats the purpose of going on your much needed
vacation.
That more or less leaves you with option number two. Leave the
child with someone. The $64,000 question is, who?
Well, you have a number of choices here. The best one is
probably to leave the child with a family member, like your
parents for one. Unfortunately, this can sometimes lead to
awkward situations. Maybe your parents really weren't planning
on taking care of your little brat for 2 months. Or maybe they
had plans to go away themselves. Most likely brothers and
sisters or distant relatives will politely tell you that they
can't do it.
Your best bet is to simply go to a professional. If your child
is old enough then you'll probably want to send the kid off to
summer camp. This is always a favorite with parents. The problem
is, you want to make sure this camp is going to be one you don't
regret sending your kid too. After all, this is still your
child.
So these are the things you should look out for before sending
your kid off to whatever summer camp you choose.
1. Find out what the camp has to offer and if it is accredited.
You don't want to send your kid somewhere where he'll be sitting
around twiddling his thumbs all day in a place that has
absolutely no accreditation. This will most likely turn out to
be a disaster. Camps that have specific programs that will keep
your child busy all day are your best bet.
2. Make sure though that there is a balance between active and
quiet times in the schedule. If your kid is going non stop all
day long by the time he gets home he is going to be bouncing off
the walls and you'll never get him down.
3. Make sure you keep in constant contact with the camp and your
child. This doesn't mean you have to call 3 times a day everyday
but you should at least keep in touch to find out what's going
on a couple of times a week.
By following these simple tips and having a little faith, you
and your child can both have a very enjoyable summer.