Here comes the summer. Oh no, you might cry. Things are bad when your heart sinks at the prospect. Months of summery bliss. And in fact, if you are a working parent with school-going children, things are bad. Apart from the harsh reality of Irish summers, the problem of what to do with the kids while you go to work is an annual disaster. School is not a substitute childcare facility. But working parents who have children at school are usually looking at part-time child care fees. Suddenly that doubles for a few months of the year. That's if your childminder/after school creche can take your children on full time. Some parents work around school times, maybe part-time in the office. These parents have to find someone willing to look after the kids just for the summer - not many people are interested in a low-paid, two-month contract. It's generally such a mess that a lot of parents leave dealing with it to the last minute. As a result, resorting to the worst possible arrangements, from leaving kids aged 10 and under in the house alone for a while, to dumping them with evil great-aunt, Agatha, are not unknown. The kids end up miserable while the parents are consumed with guilt and stress. A lot of working parents choose summer projects as an alternative. But this can throw up a whole new bunch of problems.
Colette has two boys aged 10 and 13. She works full-time, taking her three weeks holidays during the summer. "Up until now I've had to juggle those five weeks of primary school holidays between my mother and summer camp. This year my eldest son has started secondary school, so I have a whole extra month to worry about. I still haven't figured out what I'm going to do. But I think I've been through my worst experience, which was the year the youngest one decided he hated his summer camp after the first day! He'd gotten the details confused, all his friends were at a different camp and he just wouldn't stay".
According to Fionnuala Kilfeather of the National Parents Council Primary, what may seem like the perfect holiday programme, doesn't always appeal to the kids. "You really need to talk to them about what exactly they would like to do," she says. "The whole point of a summer project is that it's supposed to be enjoyable. They aren't designed to look after children while their parents work, the idea is to provide them with a bit of fun."
Parents who find themselves caught up in what Kilfeather describes as "the desperate dilemma" of finding child care over the summer might come together and "see if they can work something out at a community level. One way or another, we really need to look at the quality of provision among summer projects for children," she says. At the moment there is no such thing as a body which oversees the safety and quality of summer camp provision. Peter Byrne is the Director of the National Youth Council. "Basically, if I wanted to, I could set up the Peter Byrne fun camp in the morning," he says. "I would have to comply with areas like fire regulations, but there are no legal requirements when it comes to training or the quality of provision," he says.
"A lot of youth organisations issue their own guidelines, and there are good projects and summer camps out there. But the problem is you have no guarantee. I would advise parents to do some pre-planning. Don't leave the queries to enrolment day, go down a few weeks in advance and take a good look around. What does the equipment look like? If the place isn't really looking up to scratch, there are obviously safety implications. "Parents should find out what the ratios are like and what sort of training the people in charge have. Check their health and safety guidelines, and ask about child protection guidelines. You should feel satisfied that all the precautions you would take on a day trip, will be taken during the project".
Even though you may find a wonderful summer project, you could still encounter difficulties. "Some camps only cater for children over six," says Colette, "and I don't know of any which run nine to five. So you have to sort lifts out, and find someone to fill in until you get home. It certainly adds up, we've just had to budget for the extra expense each year".
There is possibly some light at the end of the tunnel. Under the Parental Leave Act, parents of children born after June 1996 and aged up to five can take 14 weeks leave. The downside is you don't get paid. Not a lot of enticement there, but balancing out extra child-care costs, it might work for some parents.
A number of Government departments are involved in a pilot scheme whereby employees are entitled to take two to three months leave in the summer, with pay reductions. This is the sort of scheme which could appeal to employers and employees alike, and would be more than likely to delight the kids. But as yet, parents still just have to muddle along, and it doesn't necessarily get easier as the kids get older.
"When they get into their teens they are well able to mind themselves alright," says Colette, "but you've to spend the day wondering what on earth they might be doing, who they are hanging out with, and where they are going."
