• Summer childcare decisions should align with your family goals, not default assumptions.

• Camp is not always the cheapest or most sustainable option, especially with multiple kids.

• Nanny shares, part-time help, and corporate backup care can be financially comparable to camp.

• Over-scheduling camps can increase logistics stress and overload nervous systems.

• Overnight camp can build independence skills for kids and restore capacity for parents.

So many of us default to thinking it’s camp or bust, but that’s not always true.

When we ran the math, I realized something surprising:

Two kids in camp at roughly $400 per week for ten weeks is about $8,000.

• Two kids in camp at roughly $400 per week for ten week is about $8,000.

• A college student nanny at $20/hour for ten weeks? Well it’s conveniently also about $8,000.

• And if you share a nanny with a neighbor, hire part-time help for only half days, or use corporate backup care (often around $8/hour through employee benefits in many corporations), suddenly the math shifts what’s possible for us.

For many of us, summer childcare planning isn’t just about cost, though. It also needs to account for the energy allocation and the logistics (particularly for any RTO parents!).

And if you’re anything like me, it’s also about what your nervous system can tolerate for ten (TEN!!!) straight weeks.

Getting clear on this changed everything for me. (Btw, I should offer here that I 100% did not get it right on that first summer. We massively overloaded! 0 stars. Wouldn’t recommend.)

When you think about your summer, what feels important to you? Do you want it to feel like acceleration? exposure and skill-building? or slowing down?

The first summer we did full-day camps every…single...week, and it felt like we never came up for air.

Drop-off at 8:30. Pickup at 4:30. Repeat. This is a good time to mention we also live 30 minutes away from civilization, so that was 75 minutes every single day, every single week. 

It didn’t feel like summer. For all of us, it felt like school with worse logistics. And because we didn’t have bus access like we do during the school year, every single day required a physical commute. That alone added friction. Gossshhhhh I missed that bus SO much. 

If your family goal is to slow down, overloading camps may work against you.

If your goal is skill exposure like swimming, coding, sports, and engineering, camps can be powerful.

The decision should flow from your values and not from panic or pressure to follow the flow of others, like we did.

Values-based summer planning means making childcare decisions based on your family’s priorities, capacity, and season. It’s not about just what everyone else is doing. (Remember, there are other options.)

Summer isn’t the time to focus on maximizing productivity. It’s your summer too, my friend. As with everything I teach, I hope you use your summer, especially, to align your time, money, and energy with what matters most in this specific season.

When your childcare decisions align with your values, the stress decreases even if the logistics are still real because you’re confident in why you’re doing what you’re doing and how it serves your family. And I’d offer, do it without guilt!

For example, if you need them in full-time camp because…

…you work from home and need them out of the house, great! Trust me, I get it.

…you’re chasing a promotion so don’t have the brain space to think about changing it up. YGG! CHEERING FOR YOU!

…it most easily supports your custody arrangement, bless you friend. Single moms are saints.

When you make choices aligned with what you value, you can feel confident in your decision even if it’s hard.

This is something we don’t talk about enough: Kids, especially younger ones, get overstimulated fast in summer. Heat, noise, all-day activity, no naps, and overstimulation don’t just affect them. My friend, it also affects you!

A constantly dysregulated child means a constantly dysregulated household, and that’s the ultimate summer buzzkill!

If you’re open to it, overnight camp is a different category entirely.

I say this honestly: It’s life-changing for you and for them.

We send our boys to camp in the North Carolina mountains every summer and it builds independence in ways we simply cannot at home.

They learn…

• …to manage their hygiene without reminders,

• …to differentiate lake towels from shower towels,

• …to eat vegetables because it’s the responsible thing to do, and 

• …to function without constant oversight.

And I get something too:

• Rest.

• Marriage time.

• Adult conversations.

• Space to think. 

• Punching through my to-do list at wildly high speeds without bedtime routines and carpool.

I’m really not trying to escape my kids, but sustainable parenting requires margin, and margin does not appear accidentally.

In Episode 26 of The Life Management System, I unpack how to think about summer childcare decisions strategically, not reactively.

We talk through:

• Camp versus nanny math

• Corporate backup care

• Aligning childcare with family goals

• Managing stimulation and independence

• Why overnight camp can be transformative

It’s not about the “right” answer. It’s about designing a summer that works for your real life.

• Episode 72: How I designed my corporate workweek to protect my energy

• Episode 67: Why burnout sneaks up on high performers

• Boundary Self-Check Quiz (3-minute clarity tool)

If summer planning feels heavy, start with awareness.

What does your family actually need this season?

More stimulation? More independence? More margin?

And what do you need to survive the summer without white-knuckling it?

🎧 Listen to episode 26

📋Or start with the Boundary Self-Check Quiz if you want clarity around where your time and energy are already stretched thin.

You don’t need to do summer perfectly. You just need it to be sustainable and I sure hope something you can each enjoy along the way.

• Summer childcare should align with family goals, not default to weekly camps.

• Camps and nannies can be financially comparable depending on their structure.

• Logistics friction increases stress more than most parents anticipate.

• Stimulation levels affect the entire household’s nervous system.

• Sustainable parenting requires intentional margin, not just childcare coverage.