Here in Colorado, school has been out for a couple of weeks. Elsewhere in the U.S., summer vacation is fast approaching. If you’re a freelancing mom or dad, it’s both the best of times and the worst of times! Each morning in the summer, I wake up and have a little gratitude moment: I’m grateful for a job that is so flexible; I’m grateful for a husband who supports both my work and my parenting; I’m grateful for a child who enjoys spending time with me; I’m grateful that I have a wonderful group of friends with kids of similar ages; I’m grateful that I enjoy what I do for work. On the flip side, if it’s hard to fit a semi-full-time job into the regular school schedule, it’s really hard to fit a semi-full-time job into the summer, no-school schedule. What’s a freelancing mom or dad to do?
As I see it, there are a few basic options: pay for child care in the form of a babysitter or summer camp, try to work while your kids are at home with you, work less or take the summer off, trade or barter child care or find a source of free child care, or patch together some combination of these strategies. As with all things parenting-related, I think that the ideal solution depends on how much you need or want to work, how many kids you have and how you get along with them, what financial resources you have available and how your spouse or partner (if you have one) can pitch in.
Here at the world headquarters of Thoughts on Translation, we tend to use the patchwork strategy and so far it has worked out well. Out of a 10 week summer break, we’ll be away for 3 weeks, my daughter will go to half-day or full-day camp for 5 weeks and we’ll have 2 free weeks at home. I feel that this gives me a good balance of uninterrupted work time and extra time to spend with my daughter and our friends, but I can also see that I’ll be working at night a lot more than I normally do. In addition, I think that the patchwork strategy works best if you only have one child. For example, the total tab for our 5 weeks of day camp was $1,500. Not bad as a percentage of my income, but if you are enrolling 2+ kids, the enrollment fees start to add up.
In mulling over how to plan our summer, here are a few creative solutions that I came up with; feel free to add your own!
- Enlist your kids in the planning. This summer my daughter wanted more unstructured time, so we struck a deal that when she’s not at camp, she will read or listen to an audio book for at least an hour a day while I’m working.
- Steal an hour here and an hour there. If your kids sleep later in the summer, get up as early as possible and work then. Maybe there’s an hour between when your spouse gets home and when you eat dinner; maybe you can get a netbook or small laptop and take it to the pool, park, playdates, etc. I have an Asus Eee netbook and I make a habit of always having it with me in the summer in case I get some unexpected work time.
- Get your spouse on board. Maybe your spouse can arrive early at work and then leave early, so that you can have some extra work time in the afternoons.
- Barter child care. You’re not the only one in the freelancing parent boat; maybe you could even form a child care co-op with other freelancing moms and dads. Maybe you have a friend who’s a stay at home mom or dad and wouldn’t mind watching your child (either for pay or as a trade or favor) some of the time.
- Use a less expensive babysitter while you work at home. For example, we know several neighborhood middle-schoolers who will babysit for $3-$5 per hour while a parent is home. This is a significant savings over the $10-$15 per hour that “full-fledged” babysitters in our area charge.
When my daughter was really little, a wise older woman in the supermarket line said to me, “When they’re that age, the days are long and the years are short.” I find that in the summer, that advice is still true; the days often go slowly, but when school starts I’m always amazed at how fast summer vacation went. So, the last piece of advice for freelancing moms and dads with a long, hot summer ahead? Enjoy it!!
Corinne, thank you very much for this post! I have the same problem – in July our kindergarden is closed and I will share my job with the kid. Probably we will go to the sea and spend at least 2 weeks there, I will probably work on the beach 🙂
“When they’re that age, the days are long and the years are short.” – the God’s truth.
It is always very interesting to read your posts!
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Thanks for your comment! I forgot to mention working on the beach, let us know how you sand-proof your laptop 🙂
it is waterproof, my kid checked that 4 times 🙂
Hi Corinne,
Patchwork sounds about right. We’ve got one child as well and we both work from home. Definitely a productivity hit involved. But you have to remember the flipside too, which you touched on – you get to watch them grow up. 🙂
Days are long and years are short is spot on. Freelancing parenting is hard, but at least you don’t miss out on their childhood like lots of career-oriented parents do.
It doesn’t make it any easier, but I keep telling myself it’s got to be a better long-term solution than a mainstream career path involving someone else bringing up our kid(s).
Alex, thanks for your comment. I definitely agree; I think that a) everyone makes their own choices and b) there are lots of ways to be a good parent, but I do think that a huge advantage of freelancing is being able to do the parenting yourself rather than outsourcing it. That is such a great point that despite all the juggling that freelancing dads and moms do, the other solution is to have someone else (daycare, nanny, grandparent) do most of the parenting for you. Keep up the juggling and thanks so much for reviving your newsletter, I always look forward to reading it!
Thanks for a spot on post. I am in the same situation, but with two kids, which as you pointed out, can become expensive if you enroll them in camps all day. I am also applying the patchwork strategy like you. I have noticed that if they are involved in some activity every day or several times a week, they stay content in just “relaxing” at home. I have all the friends moms on “speed dial” and try to arrange playdates when they do not have camps. This year, my son is also working 2-8 hours a week for me, updating my database of customers and prospects. So far he has only worked two hours, so we will see how that goes.
I also love to be out in the nice weather and frequently go to the pool, or garden with them. That means late nights of work, but it is a good trade. I also think that I work less on “non paying” business things over the summer in order to have more time for my kids. What would our freelancing career be if we cannot enjoy our children too… Take care!
Thanks Tess! That is a great insight that if you have some structure, the kids are a lot more amenable to hanging out some of the time (my daughter is like that too!). Definitely let us know how it goes having your son as an employee, that’s a great idea too! And I agree, if I didn’t have more time with my family than I would if I worked in-house, I’d rather work in-house and have someone else fund my retirement and health insurance 🙂 Have a great summer!
Hi Corinne,
I live in France and kids have two-week vacations every six weeks! During the school breaks, I mostly swap childcare with a neighbour and work late at night or early in the morning. It’s after midnight right now…
When it comes to multi-tasking, I am a failure. I need to focus. I could not bring my laptop to the park – either the work would end up full of typos or my kid would fall off the top of the slide. So I give my business and my family the attention they deserve…one at a time.
Catherine
Catherine, thanks for your comment. Wow, two weeks every six weeks is a real challenge! I agree that multi-tasking works best if you have older kids. My daughter is 7 and this is the first year that I’m able to work at all while she is with me. I agree with you that kids and work both deserve undivided attention!
Thanks a lot for giving than plans for summer with some creative solution……….
that is really elegant…….