Prepare from June/Survive Summer Vacation Without After-School Care!!/A Pharmacist Mom's Challenge

I'm Nekosuke, a pharmacist working part-time with reduced hours.

This time, I'll introduce how to handle the "summer vacation without after-school care" that gives me a stomachache every year.

This is a record of several years of what I tried with my only child, who hates staying home alone, and my own anxious self.

For summer vacation, there is a pattern of starting preparations in June.

First, I'll introduce something important.
Summer vacation preparations start in June!!
I mean June, okay~~!!

Summer vacation starts in late July.
Summer courses often start in early July.

Working backward, if you don't start considering, visiting, and trying out where to leave your child from June, you might not make it in time.

This is important, so please remember it!!

How to spend summer vacation

I think it's common to use after-school care only for summer vacation, but the capacity for after-school care is full everywhere.
If you're lucky, there might be openings, but isn't it mostly the case that there aren't any??

Also, it seems to be a big burden for children to join after-school care where there are regular members only for the summer vacation.

This means that realistically, "children without regular after-school care" might have to rely on private services or public services.

・Private after-school care
・Lessons
・Cram schools
・Using libraries or children's centers

Please be careful, because if you don't choose according to their compatibility, there's a possibility that your child will say "I don't want to go!!" during summer vacation, leaving you confused... (Though I did that myself...)

The hurdle is high for the summer vacation of 1st and 2nd grade

In my case, I thought that staying home alone was almost impossible for 1st and 2nd graders.

If an earthquake, typhoon, or power outage happened, they would probably panic, and even in the rain, it might get dark and scary.

By 3rd grade, they were able to stay home alone, but since it was a high hurdle for 1st and 2nd grade, I'll introduce my family's pattern.

Basically, I usedprivate after-school care and lessons, even if they were expensive.

My working hours are until 14:30.
Summer vacation is 5 weeks long.

Solve the summer vacation puzzle to keep your child from being alone

First, Igave up on spending the Obon holiday as a family.

I had my husband break up his Obon holiday and take 4 days off.
I had my shifts shifted from weekdays to Saturdays only for the summer vacation.
This secured 2 days of peace of mind for my child per week.

We could only spend 1 day a week as a family, but it couldn't be helped.

We decided to go on a trip during Silver Week, and anyway, I made sure not to leave my child alone.

I also made a promise to have my mother come for one week.

With this, out of the 5 weeks of summer vacation,
・1 week with my mother
・2 days a week managed somehow by the parents
was possible, so I put my child in private after-school care and cram school for the remaining 3 days a week.

Since there wasn't a place my child liked, they went to a different place every year until 3rd grade.

・Private after-school care run by a cram school that also does crafts, puzzles, etc.
・English private after-school care
・Individual cram school (after it finished, they waited for about 30 minutes in the self-study room reading a book)

My stomach would churn every year until I decided where to go.

Children also get nervous in new places.
So I made it only for the morning and left work to pick them up.
I worked again during their afternoon lessons (swimming) or after my husband came home early.

I lived by combining my child's lessons and my and my husband's work like a puzzle.

A summer of challenges, for both me and my child

I decided that summer vacation would be a time for challenges.

That's why I've been talking to my child about it since around June. "Mommy has to work, so you take on a challenge, okay? Let's do our best together."

Attending a private after-school program three times a week. It costs about 100,000 yen just for the mornings.

When they were in first grade, I thought it was too expensive, but even regular after-school care costs 12,000 yen a month. That adds up to 144,000 yen a year, whereas our home, without after-school care, costs 0 yen. So, I decided that 100,000 yen for summer vacation wasn't too much to spend.

Any regrets? Ways to make it easier and cheaper

I used private after-school care, but there were other options.

Using the library or children's center.

A mom friend who works shorter hours had her child wait at the library or children's center. I considered it too, but since my child wasn't used to the library or children's center, I decided it was impossible to just drop them off during summer vacation.

I think making good use of these places would have been a viable option.

A busy summer, but precious memories

With all that said, first and second grade were busy summer vacations. The first day of private after-school care, when they cried because they couldn't make friends. When I thought they wouldn't be able to go anymore, they showed up the next day with a determined look and said, "I'll try going again today," which made me tear up while heading to work. They don't remember that, and only talk about the first arcade they went to on the way home. I don't remember it, but it seems they also enjoyed taking the bus home during a summer evening shower and choosing a reward ice cream every day.

I managed to get through it by taking breaks during work or working Saturdays, and I even succeeded in getting a raise without lowering my performance evaluation.

Don't sacrifice your career for parenting.

It is possible for a pharmacist mom to have it all. I will write about "how I negotiated" in another article, so I hope it serves as a helpful reference.