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The Miami Herald Balancing Act Column: Parents Scrambling for Best Summer Camp Options

Posted on: Friday, 2 June 2006, 00:00 CDT

By Cindy Krischer Goodman, The Miami Herald

May 23--Kids will cheer when the school year comes to an end this week. But working parents, like me, may have a different reaction. Caught off guard by a school year that ends before Memorial Day, I am still scrambling to firm up summertime child care options.

Summer is a complicated time for working parents. We find ourselves frantically searching brochures and scouring websites to find fun, affordable and safe activities for our children. Having multiple children makes the task even more time-consuming.

Most parents will fill this year's 11 weeks of summer with a hodgepodge of day camps, family vacations, baby-sitters and relative care.

"Summer child care is a significant challenge for working parents, who are tasked with filling eight or nine hours a day with activities and supervision," said Richard A. Chaifetz, chairman and chief executive of ComPsych, a workplace consultant.

ComPsych reports that when 1,000 U.S. workers were asked about the amount of time they spend planning for children's summer activities, the majority said 12 hours. Working parents with teens, may discover the summer scramble even more challenging. Teens often believe they need less supervision, but they still require direction to find classes, work opportunities or volunteer activities. Here are a few ways to ease your summer childcare search.

-- Employer help.An overlooked corporate benefit that employers of all sizes may offer is Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs). These EAPs have researchers that help busy workers find appropriate summer child care. Linda Todd, a consultant at Ceridian, an EAP provider, says parents start calling as early as January looking for guidance with dates, hours and cost of camp programs. The number of summer camp calls grows each year, she says.

Donna Hazen-Nance, a research delivery manager at Ceridian says some camps aren't long enough. "A lot of camps are 9 to 3, which isn't enough for working parents. Some do offer extended hours but parents will pay a premium. We help them with all the possibilities."

Some employers offer camp fairs or employee discounts. American Express in Plantation holds a Summer Camp Expo in March for its employees. And, it offers transportation to and from its Plantation office to a local park camp.

On-site summer camps have the potential to ease summer stress by cutting commutes, eliminating distant drop offs and pick ups. But these programs are rare in the working world. Less than 5 percent of companies offer them, according to Hewitt Associates.

-- Day camps or recreational programs are the most common choice. More than 24 percent of school-age children attend camps or other group programs in the summer, the Urban Institute says. But this option can get complicated for working parents who often need extended hours.

In Broward and Miami-Dade counties the park camps offer the most affordable choice. County and city parks offer specialty programs such as sports camps and horseback riding, or more general adventure camps. The general camps are more affordable -- $20 to $70 a week -- compared with $80 to $425 at specialty park camps. Most public programs have extended care that runs from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. for an additional cost. Last-minute scramblers may find many of these programs are already filled. The county websites ( and www.broward.org/parks) can guide you, although you may have to call the individual parks for availability.

-- Overnight camps can be the easiest alternative for those who can afford it. Karen Meister Hodson operates The Camp Experts & Teen Summers in Miami ( www.campexperts.com.) Her finder fees are paid by the camps. Parents provide information on the programs that interest their child and Meister Hodson sorts through the 900 camps in her data base. Hodson says prices range from $700 to $1300 a week. Hodson says some sleep-away camps do offer financial aid or scholarships but most make it available for the weeks at the end of summer.

-- Summer school. This year, about 60,000 eligible Miami-Dade students will have the opportunity to catch up and in some cases get ahead when they participate in the summer school program running June 21 through July 20. Broward County's summer school program will run June 12 through July 21.

-- Self-care is an option parent often choose by default. Florida does not have a law specifying when a minor can be left home alone. But most experts say children usually don't have the maturity to be left unsupervised until age 12. Nationally, about one in 10 children regularly spend time in self-care during the summer. The largest group of children in self-care are 10- to 12-year-olds.

Neighborhood teens often will pitch in with summer child care, typically charging $6 to $8 an hour. If you lack contact with teens, consider networking with other parents or contacting the American Red Cross for graduates of their baby-sitting courses. Unfortunately, with unemployment the lowest it has ever been, South Florida teenagers who plan to look for work likely will find they are in demand at retail stores, fast-food restaurants or in summer camps, labor market experts say.

Neighbors or Family: About 45 percent of low-income children are in the care of relatives during the summer compared with 27 percent of higher-income children, the Urban Institute says. Some parents use family care as a filler, between camp sessions.

Flexible work schedules -- Although 78 percent of workers lack official alternate work schedules during summer months, many employers offer flexibility at the department level and some even offer a summer reduced work schedule policy.

In the end, the right summer care answer likely will be a mixture of choices for most parents. My kids have tried a variety of local day camps, nanny care and some family care tossed in, too. For this year, I am still planning away.

E-mail comments or ideas to cgoodman@MiamiHerald.com.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Miami Herald

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Source: The Miami Herald

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