The summer of 2020 we didn’t do much. My son went to a few weeks of camp at our dojo and got into a couple weeks at a near by Rec Center in August. Our daughter went to Sailing Camp for three weeks, which we only knew about because we’d won a week of it in a raffle the summer before.
The summer of 2021 we made it to St. Louis to see my extended family. We really lucked out that our trip was in late June/early July so we were back before the summer wave was cresting. My son spent SIX WEEKS at dojo camp because San Francisco’s “Camps for Everyone” initiative meant that middle class families were shit out of luck. Our daughter did three weeks of Sailing Camp with friends again.
This summer we’re going to St. Louis again. (Yay! I’m always so grateful when this can happen – seeing my extended family is VERY important to me). And… drum roll please… London to see my sister! We’ll see if London actually happens. We’re planning to go in late July so I give it a 50/50 chance (when I’m in an optimistic mood), but I’m excited at the possibility of going. We were initially trying to go in early June, but the prospect of the London trip messing up the St. Louis trip (because of someone testing positive) stressed me out too much. I eventually had to tell my parents (who are coming with us) that I would go to London in July or not at all. They agreed and we bought our tickets last week.
This morning, at 10am, my husband and I tried to get our kids into some Rec and Park camps for this summer. We spent all week deciding on camps, and 1.5 hours hours last night populating our Wish Lists, but at 10am when registration opened most of the camps we wanted were immediately full. This summer they saved half the spaces of each camp for “priority registration” which means middle class families had more of a chance of getting their kids into a cheaper summer camp than last year, but still very little chance. We ended up getting our son (8yo) into only one week of the six weeks we tried for. We got our daughter (12yo this summer) into quite a few weeks of camp, but she will only be excited about one of them. Most of her friends aren’t going to camps this summer, but with our son in camps, we feel it’s ultimately better for our daughter to be doing something too. We know she’ll just sit around trying to get on a screen all summer and I’m not interested in managing that.
After we lost at the SF Rec and Park Summer Camp corral, my husband spent $600 on a week of Giants Baseball camp for my son. I’ll be spending another $450 on a week of martial camps at the dojo and then we’ll cross our fingers and hope he gets in off the wait list for the one week of camp we need in July. I fear we are SOL for the last week of camp before school starts in August, because very few places offer camp that week. Of course I actually need coverage that week because I go back for staff days on Wednesday. I hope the grandparents can help us out!
There is a lot more swirling around in my head about summers, and the pandemic, and the “pinching of the middle class” in places like San Francisco, and our immense privilege… But as you can probably surmise from that sentence, it would require it’s own post. And I’m trying hard to just put out shorter, less intense posts instead of waiting for the time to write the longer posts. So I’m going to stop here.
What are you planning for summer this year?
This summer is going to look…quite different than usual.
My husband has spent the better part of the last decade in a very demanding career where it was hard for him to take much vacation (or, when he did, there would often be “fires” he had to help put out so it never truly felt like time off – he’s an executive at a fast-growing startup in drone tech). Pre-COVID he traveled internationally about 50% of the time so summer was a tough time for me (I work part-time from home but can work flexible hours – for the most part – and can work remotely).
But we are currently 2 weeks into a 6-month sabbatical for my husband and this summer is rather wide open for the first time…ever. I haven’t started thinking through camps; we’re actually going to do most of our traveling in May and June so we can be home during the nice summer weather. But it feels odd, yet nice, to not feel like I’m responsible for filling a whole summer for the kids. So I don’t know what we’re doing yet!
That sounds amazing! My husband has a lot more time banked than normal and I’m excited that he’ll be traveling more with us this year than he has in the past. Usually he just meets us for part of a trip, but this year he’s joining us for all of London.
Figuring out summer camp programs sounds awful. So complex and expensive. Each year it seems to be harder and harder for parents to plan for and solve.
Am excited for St Louis and thrilled for London! What marvelous travel you have before you. Hope it can all happen and that you write about it.
Travel doesn’t look likely for me, so I shall enjoy yours.
It does feel harder every year. My daughter pretty much exclusively attending Rec and Park camps when she was young so not being able to get my son into 5 of the 6 weeks shows how much harder it is now.
Our summer is going to be bizarre! We will be deep in the house addition process, so our kids are going to MN to live on my parents’ farm from June 1 – Aug 15. I’ve so far signed them up for nothing, though I may see if there’s a little league or soccer league I can get them in up there. Otherwise the plan is riding around the farm with grandpa on the Razer or fishing in the creek or swimming in my sister’s pool. A very unplugged summer!
I’ll be back and forth between MN and CO – so it’s going to be bizarre to not see my kids for about 10 days in the end of June and 10 days in the end of July, but I think it will work out great for us!
Yes wow getting into camp in SF is like a blood sport. Such a drag to find reasonably priced childcare over the summer and everything reasonable immediately fills up.
Last summer our daughter’s after school program offered free 6 weeks of summer camp at the school site – in fact, we got a $500 stipend at the end of camp so they paid us. It wasn’t full and was open to all SFUSD students. The problem is that sign ups were very late ( early May) and not well advertised. This year it is $250 per week, so still very reasonable. The program is not full or filling fast and you can choose any school site. Is something like this not available at your son’s school? The second half of the summer forget it, no camps available. Our daughter will go to Camp Mom (I teach so summers are flexible for me.)