Speaker 1: Hi. I'm Laura Vanderkamp. I'm a mother of five, an author, journalist,
Speaker 1: and speaker.
Speaker 2: And I'm Sarah hart Hunger, a mother of three, practicing physician, writer,
Speaker 2: and course creator. We are two working parents who love
Speaker 2: our careers and our families.
Speaker 1: Welcome to best of both worlds. Here we talk about
Speaker 1: how real women manage work, family, and time for fun.
Speaker 1: From figuring out childcare to mapping out long term career goals.
Speaker 1: We want you to get the most out of life.
Speaker 1: Welcome to best of both worlds. This is Laura. This
Speaker 1: episode is airing in late February of twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: We are going to be talking about planning your summer now. Now.
Speaker 1: I imagine that many people hearing this are being like, wait, Laura, Sarah,
Speaker 1: this is late February, or perhaps you are listening to
Speaker 1: this later in the week and it is early March.
Speaker 1: Why are we talking summer now? Well, we will, of
Speaker 1: course talk about summer during summer too, It's always a
Speaker 1: favorite topic of ours. But now is actually a really
Speaker 1: good time to think through your summer for a few reasons.
Speaker 1: I mean, one, you can view this time holistically, like
Speaker 1: looking at the whole map of the summer and sort
Speaker 1: of balancing the different things you might want to spend
Speaker 1: your time doing, whether that's vacations or days off when
Speaker 1: people don't have anything, sort of staycations, the camps your
Speaker 1: kids might be in. What weeks for that, so you
Speaker 1: can view the whole time holistically, kind of setting your
Speaker 1: budget for the summer if that's something you want to do.
Speaker 1: But you're also more likely to get things you want
Speaker 1: if you think about this three to six months ahead
Speaker 1: of time in terms of both vacation bookings, days off
Speaker 1: at work, camp sessions, and something that matters for a
Speaker 1: lot of people listening to this podcast, you are less
Speaker 1: likely to wind up with gaps in childcare, which of
Speaker 1: course is a major stressor for a lot of people
Speaker 1: who have younger school age kids, you know, five to
Speaker 1: time ten years old school and maybe after care is
Speaker 1: your primary childcare and all of a sudden that's gone
Speaker 1: for this summer and maybe the options don't completely cover it.
Speaker 1: So we would definitely want to talk about that, and
Speaker 1: you know, encourage you, if you haven't thought about your
Speaker 1: summer yet, to block out some time in the next
Speaker 1: week or two to give it a thought. Yes, first,
Speaker 1: in a non logistical thing. Sarah, what are you most
Speaker 1: looking forward to this summer?
Speaker 2: I am most looking forward to our family trip, which
Speaker 2: we try to do something every year. We're only doing
Speaker 2: like a maybe week in a day a length trip
Speaker 2: this summer, so no big two week extravaganza like we
Speaker 2: enjoyed last summer. But we are planning to hit New England,
Speaker 2: which should hopefully have better weather than we have down
Speaker 2: in Florida. So super excited about that. We're going to
Speaker 2: go to New Hampshire where I spent a lot of
Speaker 2: summers as a kid. That sounds like really like fancy,
Speaker 2: but it wasn't at all like my grandparents. I guess
Speaker 2: they would run a house and my parents would take
Speaker 2: advantage of the free condo room and we would squeeze
Speaker 2: in and we'd be like sleeping on the porch and
Speaker 2: it was lovely. There was lots of loons and lakes,
Speaker 2: little creeks and things, and so I'm excited to give
Speaker 2: my kids that experience. And then I think partly inspired
Speaker 2: by you, Laura, and also shout out to Kay again,
Speaker 2: who has been like we're gonna have to have her
Speaker 2: on again because we mentioned her a lot, but I
Speaker 2: got her vacation itinerary and I'm definitely gonna do mean
Speaker 2: because it definitely seems like a Katie National Park is
Speaker 2: a place not to be missed. So I hope this
Speaker 2: episode gets all of you in the mood to plan,
Speaker 2: because I have to say this has hit me at
Speaker 2: a time and I'm like, ugh, I have to do this,
Speaker 2: and it doesn't feel seasonal or fun right now. But
Speaker 2: maybe by listening to us chat about it, it will
Speaker 2: get you more excited to just go ahead and pull
Speaker 2: the trigger on some of these things for the summer,
Speaker 2: because it is true, as we'll discuss, that some of
Speaker 2: this stuff can become a little bit trickier the longer
Speaker 2: you wait. So we're hoping to inspire you today.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love a Katie. Katie is amazing. If anyone
Speaker 1: hasn't gone, you should go. I have gone like four
Speaker 1: times now because it's park you can get to in
Speaker 1: a two hour flight from as opposed to heading out
Speaker 1: to Yosemite, which is a bit of a more of
Speaker 1: an excursion, but it's very beautiful. Definitely check it out.
Speaker 1: I love going sort of end of summer because far
Speaker 1: north Maine it's starting to be fall and so it's
Speaker 1: like this bonus fall even though it's still your summer vacation.
Speaker 1: So anyway, put that out there for anyone whose kids
Speaker 1: start school in September, you might want to look into
Speaker 1: the last week of summer in Acadia. But anyway, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's going to be a fun summer for us, I think.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm looking forward to partly being able to use
Speaker 1: like our yard, so we have a pool, but longtime
Speaker 1: listeners know this was a historic house that we had
Speaker 1: to do a gut renovation of and a historic pool
Speaker 1: is just old, like there's nothing redeeming about it being
Speaker 1: an old pool, I guess. So a lot of things
Speaker 1: were just kind of broken, and we got it working
Speaker 1: at the end of our first summer here in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two, and then other things broke for twenty twenty
Speaker 1: three and those needed to be fixed. But I am
Speaker 1: excited that hopefully this summer everything should be in working
Speaker 1: order with the amount of work we have put into it,
Speaker 1: so we'll be able to actually use it and it
Speaker 1: is not so historic perhaps anymore, it's like more actually working.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I'm looking forward to that this summer, and
Speaker 1: especially as we get toward kind of the end of
Speaker 1: summer and it gets cooler, there's a hot tub attached
Speaker 1: to it, so that'll be a fun thing to go
Speaker 1: into and you know, extend the season a little bit
Speaker 1: as well. So, Sarah, what does your summer planning timeline
Speaker 1: look like? Like? When do you start thinking about the
Speaker 1: next summer?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I start thinking about it when I'm doing
Speaker 2: my annual planning. I'm often starting to at least think
Speaker 2: through like big ideas like are the kids going to
Speaker 2: go to sleep away camp? Or what is our family
Speaker 2: trip going to be. I've talked before about how I
Speaker 2: like having kind of some long term travel ideas on
Speaker 2: hand that are not necessarily set in stone, but at
Speaker 2: least kind of ideas of what's coming. And there was
Speaker 2: definitely a part of Planning twenty twenty four, either the
Speaker 2: live or the recorded versions, where we talked about like
Speaker 2: kind of picking up your big kind of anchor vacations
Speaker 2: for the year and thinking through that. And so that
Speaker 2: is when I actually started like finalizing, like, oh, what
Speaker 2: do I what I kind of think we want to
Speaker 2: do vacation wise for the summer.
Speaker 1: So that's when it starts.
Speaker 2: But I would say the concrete pieces coming into place
Speaker 2: is about Now, it obviously depends on the trip. We
Speaker 2: went on an Alaska cruise last summer.
Speaker 1: That had been.
Speaker 2: Really much longer process because a, I mean we actually
Speaker 2: needed to like save for it because this was a
Speaker 2: higher budget vacation than we typically take, and I wanted
Speaker 2: to spread that pain out over a little bit of time,
Speaker 2: so I would like make my little cruise payments in
Speaker 2: my savings buckets, et cetera. So that was even longer.
Speaker 2: But I would say, unless it's something super special or
Speaker 2: super big, now is when I'm thinking about getting some
Speaker 2: of the details nailed down in terms of the specific
Speaker 2: dates and the lodging. I also tend to do, like
Speaker 2: some time type of scheduling the moment I get my
Speaker 2: call schedule, because that is when I kind of know
Speaker 2: my availability for the entire next year. So that came
Speaker 2: out last August, and that's when I kind of thought, Okay,
Speaker 2: I think we're probably gonna end up traveling in early August.
Speaker 2: And it turns out I think that's going to be true.
Speaker 2: So yeah, it's kind of a long protracted process. And
Speaker 2: then of course the closer we get to these things,
Speaker 2: the more specific we get. I find that lodging from
Speaker 2: a travel planning perspective tends to be the thing that
Speaker 2: needs to be nailed down the earliest, particularly with more
Speaker 2: than two kids. I really feel like there's just such
Speaker 2: a difference when you're searching for a hotel room. You
Speaker 2: can have a family of four and like the world
Speaker 2: is just wide open to you. Obviously I could purchase
Speaker 2: two hotel rooms, but that doubles the price on anything,
Speaker 2: so I'd rather not do that. I'd rather get some
Speaker 2: kind of a house or some kind of a family
Speaker 2: type suite, and they're just not as easy to come by.
Speaker 2: So that needs to be kind of a six months
Speaker 2: out kind of thing for us most of the time.
Speaker 1: And when does Josh need to book off his stays?
Speaker 2: That's actually really interesting he doesn't, meaning despite how I
Speaker 2: wished it was done, they don't feel like they're able
Speaker 2: to set call and then plan their lives around the call.
Speaker 2: They do it the other way around. And to his credit,
Speaker 2: thus far, we've been able to work it out. He
Speaker 2: was like, just plan the trip and I will make
Speaker 2: sure that I'm off. And that worked for our two
Speaker 2: week trip, and it should work for our one week
Speaker 2: trip this summer. And it is tricky because there's only
Speaker 2: three guys in his group, so as he points out,
Speaker 2: when one of them goes away, and they're all, ah, men,
Speaker 2: I'm not they are guys. And when one of them
Speaker 2: goes away, then the other two are left holding down
Speaker 2: the fort, which means they're on half the time, which
Speaker 2: is a lot. But they all have families and it's
Speaker 2: important for all of them to get away, so they
Speaker 2: do this for each other.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well that's good. Hopefully two of them don't choose
Speaker 1: the same weight because then that's awkward. Yeah, so for us,
Speaker 1: it's yeah, it's a rolling thing. There are multiple different
Speaker 1: points when things need to be sort of booked. Our
Speaker 1: particular beach house that we have rented each summer for
Speaker 1: the past several years, I need to tell the agent
Speaker 1: that we want the same weeks basically when we're there.
Speaker 1: They booked the next summer at the end of that summer,
Speaker 1: so I just confirm with her, like, roll over the deposit,
Speaker 1: We'll take the same weeks. So that's set in early,
Speaker 1: and then some of the camps have earlier deadlines than others,
Speaker 1: at least if you want to get the more affordable rates.
Speaker 1: We're sending Alex to a new overnight camp for two
Speaker 1: weeks this summer, and they actually had if you put
Speaker 1: the deposit down before September thirtieth, it was significantly cheaper,
Speaker 1: and so I was like, well, it's sort of to
Speaker 1: the degree that, like, if I lost the deposit, it
Speaker 1: was still going to be cheaper than the amount different,
Speaker 1: you know, So I'm like, let me just go for it.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure that's why they calculated that way to
Speaker 1: get people to lock it in. And then we had
Speaker 1: a few others that opened over November, and again you
Speaker 1: get preferable rates if you sort sign up before January first,
Speaker 1: and if I truly think my kids are going to
Speaker 1: do these again, I try to get it locked in,
Speaker 1: which means that the camp spreadsheet was created in the fall,
Speaker 1: but it was not mostly filled in until later. We're
Speaker 1: still working on some of the weeks and figuring out
Speaker 1: what weeks are going to be left open, and for
Speaker 1: Sam in particular, I'm glad that there are several weeks
Speaker 1: left open because he wants to do an online summer
Speaker 1: school option and so he needs to have the space
Speaker 1: available to do it. Jasper has been figuring out what
Speaker 1: he wants to do, and so obviously I can't really
Speaker 1: fill it in for him. He needs to figure out
Speaker 1: what he would like to do with his summer, and
Speaker 1: so that's a different process and that may happen more
Speaker 1: around now, and that's fine. I mean, obviously some camps
Speaker 1: obviously could still be open, or if he wants to
Speaker 1: work somewhere, then that would happen closer to the summer.
Speaker 1: So it's a rolling timeline for us. But I do
Speaker 1: think that now is the time where I'm really sort
Speaker 1: of locking it in, because that's three to six months ahead.
Speaker 1: You still have a lot of options. So yeah, that's
Speaker 1: why we're looking at it for that.
Speaker 2: There's definitely a regional aspect to like when all the
Speaker 2: camp emails come and like I guess where I live,
Speaker 2: Like every camp and program decided it was going to
Speaker 2: be like early February, like everyone was going to send
Speaker 2: their stuff at once, which is super interesting. But being
Speaker 2: aware of that rhythm and being kind of ready to
Speaker 2: watch for it and take action and have discussed with
Speaker 2: your kids kind of their preferences so that you can
Speaker 2: act when they come in can be really helpful rather
Speaker 2: than kind of being surprised by it and then having
Speaker 2: to wait and negotiate with your kids and then having
Speaker 2: fewer options later down the road.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So if you're starting to think about this now,
Speaker 1: one of the first steps you can do is some
Speaker 1: brainstorming on your own, with your partner, with your kids,
Speaker 1: with extended family, anyone else that you might be spending
Speaker 1: significant time with over the summer. What would you like
Speaker 1: your summer to look like? I mean, what would make
Speaker 1: it a good summer. What are some things that you've
Speaker 1: been hoping to do, and that can be day to
Speaker 1: day little adventures. It could be camps the kids are
Speaker 1: interested in. It can be trips you want to take.
Speaker 1: It can be family members you would like to see.
Speaker 1: Just sort of a general sense of what would make
Speaker 1: it a good summer, and then the logistics. Sarah and
Speaker 1: I both create a camp spreadsheet, or it's not so
Speaker 1: much a camp spreadshet, it's a summer spreadsheet, and for
Speaker 1: us it has the weeks of summer down the left
Speaker 1: hand side, so starting when the kids are getting out
Speaker 1: of school, and Henry gets out a little bit earlier
Speaker 1: than the others, so I have to make it a
Speaker 1: slightly more extended and then the names of the kids
Speaker 1: across the top, and if you want. You can add
Speaker 1: your name and your partner's name as well, if you
Speaker 1: want to sort of block out what you guys are
Speaker 1: doing over the summer. If there's weeks you're off in
Speaker 1: particular or travel, you might want to put that in
Speaker 1: and write down what everyone is doing and those various
Speaker 1: weeks of summer. And the reason to do this is,
Speaker 1: I mean, you could just see very quickly. The whole
Speaker 1: point of a spreadsheet is that it organizes a lot
Speaker 1: of information in one spot quickly. So in this case,
Speaker 1: the spreadsheet is not being used for adding things up
Speaker 1: or creating categories with numbers and getting a pie chart
Speaker 1: out of it. It is just that you can see
Speaker 1: who is where when. So you are welcome to have
Speaker 1: four kids in four different camps at a particular week,
Speaker 1: but you can see if it's going to be problematic,
Speaker 1: right like, if they're in four entirely different places different times,
Speaker 1: that's going to be some driving issues and you might
Speaker 1: want to think about that ahead of time. But then
Speaker 1: you could also say, well, maybe I don't do that,
Speaker 1: maybe I do. You know, the weeks where two kids
Speaker 1: are away at overnight camp, that's when it's okay for
Speaker 1: the other kids. To have slightly different schedules because it
Speaker 1: won't be as challenging because there's only two of them.
Speaker 1: Or maybe we'll block off for everyone the week of
Speaker 1: July fourth. We don't have any plans for it, but
Speaker 1: if we're all off, then maybe we could do like
Speaker 1: a beach trip or a trip to an amusement park.
Speaker 1: And it just makes it a little bit more or
Speaker 1: obvious when you should leave everyone free versus being okay
Speaker 1: with booking things.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, I was actually thinking about this, so I
Speaker 2: do mine in Apple Notes. But the advantage of using
Speaker 2: something like Excel or Google Sheets is you could actually
Speaker 2: add a little financial column after each kid, and then
Speaker 2: you could keep track of the cost if you wanted
Speaker 2: to see how things were adding up, or see if
Speaker 2: one kid was getting spent on exorbitantly compared to the others,
Speaker 2: or something like that. So that came to me as
Speaker 2: I made mine, although I don't think Apple Notes allows
Speaker 2: you to kind of add things the way Google Sheets
Speaker 2: or Excel does, So what works for now?
Speaker 1: Yeah, we were just discussing before we started recording this
Speaker 1: how expensive some camps wind up being. I mean, this
Speaker 1: is again, I mean, among the reasons to start planning
Speaker 1: earlier is that you might be able to comparison shop.
Speaker 1: You know, if there's three dance camps in your community
Speaker 1: and your child is not the top ballerina ever that
Speaker 1: requires specialized things, you know, you might be able to
Speaker 1: look and see who has slightly cheaper rates and be
Speaker 1: more likely to have that available to you. If you
Speaker 1: are moving ahead, and I'll just a shout out, we
Speaker 1: have found if you are looking for cheap camp options,
Speaker 1: vacation Bible schools are going to be usually about the
Speaker 1: cheapest ones around. Probably if you are not of that
Speaker 1: religious persuasion, you might not find it the best thing.
Speaker 1: But if you are sort of one Protestant denomination, you
Speaker 1: probably don't care. If your child goes to a Methodist
Speaker 1: camp and then a Presbyterian camp, and they're probably welcome
Speaker 1: to have them, and they tend to be very cheap,
Speaker 1: so throw that out there as an option.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that could even be like alternated with a
Speaker 2: more expensive camp, so you're bringing down the average cost
Speaker 2: at least.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they have fun, they do cool things. Ours the
Speaker 1: older children actually go volunteer somewhere each day, so that's
Speaker 1: kind of a cool experience for them to have.
Speaker 2: That's really nice.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, we're going to take a brief break
Speaker 1: and then we're going to come back to talk a
Speaker 1: little bit more about childcare for the summer. Well, we
Speaker 1: are back talking about why you should plan your summer now,
Speaker 1: various things to look at. Just going to throw in
Speaker 1: that if you do have the spreadsheet going, you can
Speaker 1: see if things are balanced for any individual kid. If
Speaker 1: one kid has a lot and one has almost nothing,
Speaker 1: you can sort of nudge the kid who has almost
Speaker 1: nothing to think about what they would like to do
Speaker 1: for the summer. You can ask other parents for ideas,
Speaker 1: you know, the parents of that kid's friends, because maybe
Speaker 1: they might be motivated to do something for a week
Speaker 1: if a best friend is going for it as well.
Speaker 1: And then one other question to ask I mentioned you
Speaker 1: could put yourself on the spreadsheet, what does summer look
Speaker 1: like for you? What are you looking forward to? Because
Speaker 1: a few months lead time gives you some space to
Speaker 1: figure this out. And maybe it's a quick trip with
Speaker 1: your partner, or maybe you're going to meet friends somewhere,
Speaker 1: or maybe it's that you block out a few days
Speaker 1: on your work schedule ahead of time so you can
Speaker 1: go do little adventures for yourself as part of the
Speaker 1: self care that we talked about in our previous episode.
Speaker 1: So a few months lead time gives you a chance
Speaker 1: to think that through. And particularly if there is a
Speaker 1: week where say you've got three kids and two of
Speaker 1: them are away at overnight camp and you only have one,
Speaker 1: there might be more options for you to either do
Speaker 1: one on one time with that kid, or to have
Speaker 1: some more time for yourself, or a time with your partner,
Speaker 1: or time that you can get together with friends. So
Speaker 1: worth thinking about that as well.
Speaker 2: Yes, I will say for my thinking through my summer,
Speaker 2: the thing that I always have to remember is how
Speaker 2: disgusting our weather is and how that will get me down.
Speaker 2: I'm serious, Like it's better for me to go in
Speaker 2: being like this is my season of like summer hooge
Speaker 2: h y whatever, however I try to pronounce it, yes,
Speaker 2: because it is not a time to frolic in the
Speaker 2: out of doors. It is a time in many days
Speaker 2: to just kind of like hunker down and listen to
Speaker 2: the thunderstorms. And if I can think of activities or
Speaker 2: just like things to kind of bring out that kind
Speaker 2: of cozy feeling which seems so backwards, but like I
Speaker 2: guess I've instead of fighting it to like just reach
Speaker 2: that place of acceptance, but try to find ways to
Speaker 2: almost like enjoy it, like like the book Wintering, but
Speaker 2: for summer in Florida and probably a lot of other
Speaker 2: southern states as well, or like Arizona. So I do
Speaker 2: think some thinking ahead about how I'm going to handle
Speaker 2: that is warranted.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you could borrow somebody else's Winter fun list and
Speaker 1: put it as your summer fun list.
Speaker 2: And seriously, except for the parts about like hot beverages and.
Speaker 1: So you don't want any more hot beverages, there will
Speaker 1: be no hot beverages all summer long. It's iced coffee.
Speaker 1: Only one thing we really want people to think about.
Speaker 1: And again, a good reason to think about this now
Speaker 1: is that a lot of working parents wind up with
Speaker 1: some sort of gap in childcare and this can surprise people,
Speaker 1: and then they wind up with sort of stop gap solutions.
Speaker 1: And we stress on this podcast a lot that school
Speaker 1: is not really childcare, it's partial childcare. But this is
Speaker 1: the point when you come into summer where you realize
Speaker 1: that for a lot of states, school is one hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty days. Your working year is probably somewhere between
Speaker 1: two hundred forty and two hundred and fifty days if
Speaker 1: you are working full time. So that is a significant
Speaker 1: gap in the number of days. And obviously there are
Speaker 1: a lot of childcare programs out there because there are
Speaker 1: plenty of working parents who experience this every summer. But
Speaker 1: and this is your reminder to sign up if you haven't,
Speaker 1: but they may not run the whole summer, they may
Speaker 1: not have the hours that you're working. So remember, if
Speaker 1: you're signing your kid up for a day camp that
Speaker 1: runs from nine to three thirty and you work from
Speaker 1: eight to five, you've got to figure something out here
Speaker 1: or that it does start until say June. I don't
Speaker 1: remember what the starts of the week. I let's say
Speaker 1: like June twenty one, and your school gets out on
Speaker 1: June twelfth, right or around here. A lot of stuff
Speaker 1: tends to end by kind of mid to late August,
Speaker 1: and our schools don't start till after Labor Day. So
Speaker 1: there are these bridge weeks which you might be able
Speaker 1: to take them off and use those as your vacation weeks.
Speaker 1: That would be good planning ahead if you're going to
Speaker 1: do that, But if you don't, for instance, have that
Speaker 1: many vacation days or that many vacation days between you
Speaker 1: and your partner, You're probably going to need some other solution.
Speaker 1: And the further ahead you know this is happening, the
Speaker 1: more options you will have. I mean, the summer is
Speaker 1: one of the reasons you guys still have a full
Speaker 1: time nanny even though everyone's in school. Correct.
Speaker 2: Yes, In fact, I would say in some ways she's
Speaker 2: more important from like a driving perspective, because exactly what
Speaker 2: you said, a lot of camps start at nine o'clock.
Speaker 2: I am already seeing my first patient at eight thirty.
Speaker 2: That does not work. And so even though during the
Speaker 2: school year we don't need anyone in the morning, it's
Speaker 2: very likely that several weeks in the summer we will
Speaker 2: actually need more morning childcare. On the upside, there are
Speaker 2: fewer evening activities because they'd all get readed out anyway,
Speaker 2: so it'll just kind of shift to like more normal hours.
Speaker 2: But it's absolutely not a time of year when I'm like, oh,
Speaker 2: I don't have a need for childcare. If anything, it's more.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's much more. And so there are various options. Obviously,
Speaker 1: some camps have before and aftercare, which you can look
Speaker 1: into although I found you know, it's still a pricey
Speaker 1: kind of options. Well, if the camp is pricey, that's
Speaker 1: going to be pricey too. You might look into having
Speaker 1: a summer sitter, so whether that person's going to be
Speaker 1: full time or maybe they just work from two thirty
Speaker 1: to six thirty every day. But again, the further ahead
Speaker 1: you're kind of looking or at least trying to think
Speaker 1: about it, the more options you may have, and you'll
Speaker 1: get a caregiver who's thinking about their summer ahead of
Speaker 1: time to time, and there might be some upsides to that.
Speaker 1: Looking into college students, for instance, people who are going
Speaker 1: to be home for this summer. If you have families
Speaker 1: that you know that one of their children have been
Speaker 1: off at school and are returning, that might be a
Speaker 1: good option to look into. If those people are looking
Speaker 1: for summer employment, part time employment or either full time employment,
Speaker 1: or somebody who is going off to college in the
Speaker 1: fall and might be interested in earning a little bit
Speaker 1: of money before they do, so that could be a
Speaker 1: good option too, because you might also be able to
Speaker 1: see about shifting your hours. If you are thinking about
Speaker 1: this again enough ahead of time that you might be
Speaker 1: able to make the case at your place of employment
Speaker 1: that maybe you normally start eight thirty, but in the summer,
Speaker 1: perhaps you could start at nine, and that would allow
Speaker 1: you to do a camp drop off and get there,
Speaker 1: and then you would only have to pay for the
Speaker 1: aftercare or hiring a cent or to pick your kids
Speaker 1: up at camp and keep them for the afternoon until
Speaker 1: you or you and your partner can both get home
Speaker 1: from work. So again, the further ahead you do that,
Speaker 1: the more you might be able to make that case
Speaker 1: or change the work schedule to make that be possible.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm more excited about planning summer than I was
Speaker 2: before we started recording this episode, So I feel like
Speaker 2: we have at least inspired me, so hopefully've inspired some
Speaker 2: listeners as well.
Speaker 1: I know I was just thinking through I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I've got to nudge a certain child to do something,
Speaker 1: a fil out an application that's going to have to happen.
Speaker 1: What else do I need to do? I haven't really
Speaker 1: thought though much about Henry some of his camps. I mean,
Speaker 1: he'd be doing more like half day camp type things,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure some are more competitive, but I also
Speaker 1: feel like it doesn't matter as much. I mean, for
Speaker 1: little kids. It's all kind of like they're gonna go,
Speaker 1: They're gonna play. Yep, we'll sing some songs that can't
Speaker 1: be sack.
Speaker 2: Choosing the camps I find has been getting exponentially harder
Speaker 2: every year, the more specific my kid's interests are, the
Speaker 2: more they may have certain friends they want to be
Speaker 2: with or not, because it really did used to be
Speaker 2: very kind of simple and like there would be some
Speaker 2: really obvious options and they just be like, okay, And
Speaker 2: now it's definitely it's just more complicated, and that's okay.
Speaker 2: I mean, I guess it's great that they have so
Speaker 2: many cool things to choose from, and that these specialty
Speaker 2: camps exist at every single location and price point that
Speaker 2: one could imagine.
Speaker 1: It can be a wee bit overwhelming. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: a the satisficer thing comes in and I am happy
Speaker 1: to have that because I'm like, if you like this
Speaker 1: camp last year, you'll probably like it again this year.
Speaker 1: So how about you just choose a class you know
Speaker 1: you're going to like, and then we'll go with it
Speaker 1: and it might not be perfect, but then there are
Speaker 1: other fun things happening in the summer, like going to
Speaker 1: the beach ure you know, having a week where we're
Speaker 1: not in camp and people can go to an amusement
Speaker 1: park or do something else like that, So you know,
Speaker 1: I think it'll be a good time. The kids are
Speaker 1: also just happy to have the summer off.
Speaker 2: So yes, yes, they're happy not to be in school
Speaker 2: no matter, no matter what they're doing. I'll also say,
Speaker 2: like the people who have their kids in sleep away
Speaker 2: where they automatically kind of are excited to go back
Speaker 2: and see the same people every year. That must be
Speaker 2: so awesome. So you guys are lucky if.
Speaker 1: You've figured that out, you've unlocked that next level of
Speaker 1: the summer planning. Well, let's move on to the question
Speaker 1: that we have for the week. So Sarah, you want
Speaker 1: to read this one? Sure?
Speaker 2: So this one comes from I'm going to call her
Speaker 2: s and she writes that she is thinking about buying
Speaker 2: a house in the next year she and her husband,
Speaker 2: and one of their big areas of anxiety about making
Speaker 2: this change is how to manage the new burden of
Speaker 2: household maintenance and repairs. She says they hear a lot
Speaker 2: from homeowner friends that something is always breaking.
Speaker 1: You did talk about your pool.
Speaker 2: Today, Laura, so there you go. Needs cleaning or repair
Speaker 2: requires a carpenter, et cetera. And how do you, as
Speaker 2: two people who are very protective and thoughtful about how
Speaker 2: you use your time, how do you manage this? What
Speaker 2: are your thoughts on this? How do you deal with
Speaker 2: the inevitable but unexpected appliance breaking or roof repair? And
Speaker 2: is there aspects of this that can be easily outsourced,
Speaker 2: like having a great go to handyman.
Speaker 1: So Laura, yeah, yes, it turns out that houses can
Speaker 1: be a lot of work. I think, as with anything,
Speaker 1: people's experiences are going to be mixed, and you can
Speaker 1: make some smart moves to minimize some of the bigger headaches.
Speaker 1: I mean one, as potential home buyers here, make sure
Speaker 1: you do a thorough inspection before you buy the house.
Speaker 1: I mean I heard in some of the sort of
Speaker 1: hot markets people were like waving the inspection just I
Speaker 1: would say, don't even buy in that market then, like,
Speaker 1: just don't buy the house because there's always something that's wrong.
Speaker 1: Just these buildings are complicated things that have HVAC systems
Speaker 1: and plumbing and electricity and so something is going to
Speaker 1: be off and you want to go in with your
Speaker 1: eyes open, so you know, kind of the time and
Speaker 1: dollar amountated with what you're going to have to fix
Speaker 1: as opposed to having it all be a complete surprise.
Speaker 1: Buying new construction obviously is one way to somewhat minimize
Speaker 1: the number of things that are going to break immediately,
Speaker 1: because hopefully, if you have a reputable builder, they are
Speaker 1: not going to build things that are going to immediately break.
Speaker 1: And I'll throw out here the idea of buying a
Speaker 1: smaller house just because the less stuff there is, the
Speaker 1: less stuff that will break. You know, we're talking to
Speaker 1: somebody recently who had a huge storm and had a
Speaker 1: number of windows had a problem with leaking, and the
Speaker 1: more windows that were the more windows that had to
Speaker 1: be replaced, right, So the bigger the house, Like, various
Speaker 1: people had different experiences with this. If you have like
Speaker 1: three windows on that side of your house versus thirteen
Speaker 1: windows on that side, you're going to have a different
Speaker 1: bill for how much is going to be the storm
Speaker 1: damage from this particular thing. So anyway, you might want
Speaker 1: to know that we certainly did a thorough inspection. That's
Speaker 1: one of the reasons we did like gut renovation of this,
Speaker 1: and we knew that going in you can have a
Speaker 1: couple of contractors that you call all the time. Certainly
Speaker 1: by this point in our process, we have a few
Speaker 1: that we really like, and so whenever something goes wrong
Speaker 1: we call them. We also have our house manager. I mean,
Speaker 1: one of the reasons we wound up doing this situation
Speaker 1: is we have somebody for a couple hours a week
Speaker 1: who can do household related stuff, not all of its
Speaker 1: contractor related, but when we are doing some sort of
Speaker 1: bigger contractor project, she can manage that right She's getting
Speaker 1: the bids, she's talking through it with them, and so
Speaker 1: it's less of something that's pulling my husband and me
Speaker 1: away from work. And I realized that is not something
Speaker 1: that a lot of people would do, but in our
Speaker 1: particular case it made sense. I would say that you
Speaker 1: can also I'm not sure how handy you or your
Speaker 1: husband are, but that might be a skill that is
Speaker 1: worth developing, not only so you can do simple fixes
Speaker 1: yourself or with the help of YouTube, or at least
Speaker 1: recognize when something is simple or when it's complicated and
Speaker 1: you need to call a professional repair person. So having
Speaker 1: that level of expertise, and some people were lucky and
Speaker 1: they grew up with it. My husband, for whatever. I mean,
Speaker 1: he and his dad like fixed stuff and like so
Speaker 1: he has a whole sense of the h FAC system
Speaker 1: and what he can see when something's going wrong and
Speaker 1: when something you know, when you need to call somebody
Speaker 1: or with that, but neither you or your husband had that.
Speaker 1: You might want to educate yourself. There's probably a fair
Speaker 1: number of books and YouTube videos you could watch for
Speaker 1: like the most common household repairs and get yourself to
Speaker 1: that level and you'll have a little bit more confidence
Speaker 1: with it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and this stuff always stresses me out. It's like,
Speaker 2: by least this did my answer, he just stresses you out,
Speaker 2: Sarah a little. I mean, this is why I loved renting.
Speaker 2: I loved it not being my problem. And this is
Speaker 2: also why this is a piece of our household management
Speaker 2: that my husband does most of.
Speaker 1: And I think that's fair.
Speaker 2: There's a lot that I do most of, and so
Speaker 2: if I'm going to to get totally stressed out and
Speaker 2: overwhelmed by it, then that's a great thing to just
Speaker 2: have vertical ownership and have basically on his plate. I mean,
Speaker 2: for example, I do all the tax stuff that is
Speaker 2: like its own huge headache. It doesn't stress it stresses
Speaker 2: me out, but not to this degree. And if something breaks,
Speaker 2: like I'm texting him, I'm like, I need your help
Speaker 2: because partly because he does have that sense, partly because unfortunately,
Speaker 2: I've found that my interactions with service people tend to
Speaker 2: be extremely sexist. Yeah, and I don't really want to
Speaker 2: get like swindled, and he I think he's less likely
Speaker 2: to be taken advantage of, which again I recognize, like
Speaker 2: not everybody who's gonna have that, like male partner who
Speaker 2: speaks hardware ease. But if someone does in the house
Speaker 2: then or even if it's like a friend to right,
Speaker 2: a neighbor, absolutely and who knows, you know, you could
Speaker 2: sort of swap something else like Okay, you help them
Speaker 2: with you drive their kids to whatever, and they help
Speaker 2: you when stuff breaks. So I will say, like educate
Speaker 2: yourself or find someone decent at this to lean on,
Speaker 2: and if it's really not your thing, keep things simple.
Speaker 2: So you mentioned the size of the house, but I
Speaker 2: also feel like the overall fanciness of the house matters
Speaker 2: as well as well as like how much in disrepair
Speaker 2: is it? So for us, both houses we bought were
Speaker 2: in this interesting sweet spot for us, which is like
Speaker 2: not totally new and fancy, because then we couldn't afford
Speaker 2: it comfortably and we don't like to spend a ton
Speaker 2: of money on housing. But also like not falling apart
Speaker 2: because we don't feel like it, Like we don't want
Speaker 2: to deal with doing a bunch of stuff. So that's
Speaker 2: kind of what we bought, like houses that have been
Speaker 2: renovated like ten to fifteen years ago. So is everything updated, No,
Speaker 2: but is everything falling apart? Not really, so you may
Speaker 2: want to want to think about that. And also like
Speaker 2: we toured a house actually it's like across the street,
Speaker 2: and it was beautiful. Slightly bigger than our house square
Speaker 2: footage wise, but not not a big difference. But it
Speaker 2: had so many do hickeys, Like they were like in
Speaker 2: this remote does this, and then this the pool lights
Speaker 2: and we were.
Speaker 1: Like, oh my god, and when that remote breaks, you
Speaker 1: won't be able to use anything. It'll be great.
Speaker 2: Some of this stuff was even already broken. I'm like,
Speaker 2: I do not want to deal with this, like house
Speaker 2: that someone tried to make into like superhouse like ten
Speaker 2: years ago, and like it was just and instead we
Speaker 2: picked a house that was just like simpler, and I
Speaker 2: think that has actually served us pretty well. And my
Speaker 2: final point is to satisfice if it stresses you out. Like, yeah,
Speaker 2: certain things are important, like you need safe electricity and
Speaker 2: stuff like that, but like you know, let's say a
Speaker 2: thing falls off your bathroom wall and you only have
Speaker 2: one towel hook like that can go for a while. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you don't have to do everything all at once. Now,
Speaker 2: if they all end up falling off, as me or
Speaker 2: may not be the case in our house, then it
Speaker 2: becomes more of an issue, but then it's more efficient
Speaker 2: because you can get them all fixed it once.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true, that's true. I think also from a
Speaker 1: time perspective, this is one of those things where again,
Speaker 1: the amount of time you devote to something is not
Speaker 1: going to be set, and there are certain things that
Speaker 1: could expand to fill all the available space. I mean,
Speaker 1: you could decide to renovate the whole house and have
Speaker 1: it fill all your time, or you could decide to
Speaker 1: do all the things for it. But you also don't
Speaker 1: have to do that, and it might help to decide
Speaker 1: that on any given weekend you're going to carve out
Speaker 1: a certain amount of time for home maintenance or repair
Speaker 1: or cleaning or whatever else you intend to do. But
Speaker 1: it's like, Okay, we have this two hour block for
Speaker 1: all things home related. If it doesn't happen during that time,
Speaker 1: it wasn't that important. Or I'm going to assign myself
Speaker 1: this task for the weekend, you know, of like finding
Speaker 1: this specialist light bulb somewhere and installing it. You know
Speaker 1: that that's gonna be that thing for this weekend. But
Speaker 1: I'm not going to tackle all the other things, right
Speaker 1: because i want to enjoy my weekend. I'm carving out
Speaker 1: this amount of time and the rest of the time,
Speaker 1: I am not going to think about it. I'm not
Speaker 1: going to be doing that all the time. I'm only
Speaker 1: going to be doing during this window. So I think
Speaker 1: that's a way you can kind of keep it under control.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: Obviously, if you're like, you know, hot water heater breaks
Speaker 1: and there's water all over your basement, you're gonna have
Speaker 1: to spend more time on it, but that you'd be
Speaker 1: dealing with all of it if you were renting too.
Speaker 1: I mean, your landlord would be responsible for it, but
Speaker 1: you'd still be the one with water all over your room.
Speaker 1: So that's things can happen either way.
Speaker 2: By the way, if you do have an emergency and
Speaker 2: you need someone. My favorite way of finding people is
Speaker 2: the community What's Up group? I mean sometimes communities are
Speaker 2: on Facebook or whatever, but I'm super glad that exists
Speaker 2: because anytime I've been like I need an h back,
Speaker 2: then you know, I can ask people to you know,
Speaker 2: respond privately, and they can tell me like their actual
Speaker 2: experience with XYZ company. And if your neighbors had a
Speaker 2: good experience, you probably will too. So crowdsourcing for service
Speaker 2: people has been like a game changer for me, and
Speaker 2: that might have been harder to do before the age
Speaker 2: of having a community what's Up group or Facebook.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, hey, social media for the win. There. So
Speaker 1: our love of the week, I'm going to go with
Speaker 1: potted plants. I have been putting some in my office
Speaker 1: in my bedroom, and they can be fake. You know,
Speaker 1: fake is like the best of both worlds. They look
Speaker 1: pretty realistic these days, but then they don't require actual maintenance.
Speaker 1: I mean you have to dust them, I guess at
Speaker 1: some point, but you still get the greenery that you
Speaker 1: don't have to take care of it. But you can
Speaker 1: have real plants too. There are several that aren't pretty easy.
Speaker 1: I mean, you have like succulentser like some ones that
Speaker 1: are like known for being very minimal in terms of care,
Speaker 1: like you water them like once a month or something,
Speaker 1: but having a little greenery in your relaxing spaces makes
Speaker 1: them feel more Like humans love greenery. It's one of
Speaker 1: those things. So if you want to feel a little
Speaker 1: bit more fulfilled as you're in your bedroom or in
Speaker 1: your office, put a plant in.
Speaker 2: I should put one in my closet where I record.
Speaker 2: I think fake would be best, but it might add something.
Speaker 2: My love of the week is totally not as natural,
Speaker 2: So I enjoy this Alpha h Liquid gold Rose Limited Edition.
Speaker 1: It's like, what is it?
Speaker 2: I think it's like an alpha yid. Yeah, it's alphahydroxy
Speaker 2: acid products. So I don't use it every day.
Speaker 1: Or this is a face care thing.
Speaker 2: This is not like a face care.
Speaker 1: I'm holding it up for what is it? Is it food?
Speaker 1: Is it a home repair project? This is a cosmetic product.
Speaker 2: And what I love about it is when I put
Speaker 2: it on, it feels like it just totally I reifies
Speaker 2: my skin and like I see stuff on the pad
Speaker 2: and I'm like, wow, it must be like really getting
Speaker 2: everything out and I feel like I wake up the
Speaker 2: next day in my skin is like noticeably a little brighter.
Speaker 2: So alpha h liquid gold alpha hydroxy acid.
Speaker 1: You heard it here, first heard it here first? All right?
Speaker 1: Was that in the Allure Beauty box? Or how did
Speaker 1: you get this product?
Speaker 2: I think the first time I used it was from
Speaker 2: the Allure Meati box. You got it?
Speaker 1: There you go? We were't how both subscribe to it?
Speaker 1: To fun little way to get trial cosmetic products. All right,
Speaker 1: Well this has been best of both worlds. We've been
Speaker 1: talking all things summer, how to plan your summer now
Speaker 1: and why you should be thinking about summer three to
Speaker 1: six months ahead of time, just so you can view
Speaker 1: the whole summer holistically. Get the best vacation spots, book
Speaker 1: your hotel rooms, make sure you get camps that you want,
Speaker 1: and also make sure that you don't have any gaps
Speaker 1: in childcare that you aren't aware of, so that summer
Speaker 1: is a much less stressful experience as a working parent.
Speaker 1: We will be back next week with more on making
Speaker 1: work and life fit together.
Speaker 2: Thanks thanks for listening. You can find me Sarah at
Speaker 2: the shoebox dot com or at the Underscore Shoebox on Instagram,
Speaker 2: and you.
Speaker 1: Can find me Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. This
Speaker 1: has been the best of both worlds podcasts. Please join
Speaker 1: us next time for more on making work and life
Speaker 1: work together.