2023 Summer Preview! Camp, Travel, Fun Lists & More

00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hi.

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Speaker 2: This is Laura Vandercamp. I'm a mother of five, an author, journalist, and speaker.

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Speaker 3: And this is Sarah Hartunger. I'm a mother of three, a practicing physician and blogger. On the side, we are two working parents who love our careers and our families.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to best of both worlds.

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Speaker 2: Here we talk about how real women manage work, family, and time for fun, from figuring out childcare to mapping out long term career goals. We want you to get the most out of life.

00:00:32
Speaker 1: Welcome to best of both worlds. This is Laura. This is episode three hundred two, airing in mid May of twenty twenty three. We're going to be talking all things summer planning. I'm sure many people who listen to this program have already been planning their summer. Have probably been planning their summers since January or whenever your local camp schedules are released, and whenever you needed to put in for your PTO or whatever else you had to do to plan your summer. But there may still be some spaces on the margin for figuring things out, or maybe you haven't gotten to that yet. And we also want to talk about our plans too. So Sarah, you don't really have a summer though as a summer per se in Florence, we.

00:01:14
Speaker 3: Don't have summer weather, but we certainly have summer vibes. I mean, as much as I don't look forward to the weather that's already kind of starting up here with the thunderstorms and the humidity, I still really like the routine change and the feel, you know, everything gets a little more casual. And interestingly things are less crowded down here because the tourists are not coming, and in fact, many of the natives try to leave.

00:01:41
Speaker 1: Yes, it's like January up north. No one wants to be there, right, So yeah, I like this vibe of summer. I mean, I don't know, it's hold over from when you're a kid and it's you're out of school and you're doing different things. I mean, I love the idea of camps that kids get to try different activities and a different environment, though as apparent, the mental load of some of that is a wee bit intense. One camp in particular was giving me all sorts of fits this year, And to be clear, it's an overnight camp, so obviously there's going to be more details involved in that than others. But we went back and forth. This was for Sam, he had to test into it, and then there's a question of whether he had taken the right prerequisites, and so we were going back and forth with the camp and the school about what algebra topics he had covered and whether we could a test that he had learned them. And then going through the camp medical forms that you know, it needed a physician's signature on it for their particular form, and just kept it, kept going on all the things that needed to be done. But you know, it's eventually you make it through.

00:02:53
Speaker 3: I always wonder because a lot of the camps used similar software, and a lot of them use a service called Campanion. But the campanions don't talk to each other. So you can fill out all of your details on camp a's campanion site and it'll look exactly the same, but at least in my experience, camp Be's will be completely blank.

00:03:12
Speaker 1: And I'm like, come.

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Speaker 3: On, Campanion, shouldn't you at the whole point be like I can send that, you can share it.

00:03:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it should be like your electronic medical record.

00:03:20
Speaker 3: If many days don't talk to each other either, but yeah, some of them do and hopefully maybe moving forward, more of the camp apps will talk.

00:03:26
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think I was most annoyed by the fact that I had to fill out the vaccine record in this drop down menu, Like you kept having to say, what October of twenty ten, you know, back when he got something for Eda's twelve months check up. I'm like, huh, you remember this?

00:03:41
Speaker 3: But I had to do the same thing, and I actually was like, let me see if I can like remember what these days were like and where I was in, which doctors are like. I honestly, I was like, oh, this is very boring, so let me take a trip down memory lane while I'm doing it.

00:03:54
Speaker 1: While I'm doing this, I know, Yeah, I gotta say. This is one of those things if you're the parent who winds up doing it's very easy to feel like no one is valuing your time. I think I may have screamed that a few times in the course. Also, I had the realization that if I were to die suddenly, I suspect my children would just never go to camp because I don't envision my husband sitting there and doing all the drop down menus. I don't know. Maybe I guess he'll pay somebody to do it, but.

00:04:25
Speaker 3: It's definitely I knew I had to be the one to do it. I mean I probably could best for help, but it was easier to just do it.

00:04:33
Speaker 1: Although, all right, here's one thing I am not doing, which is a summer thing for us, but in its own way. So this is airing on my oldest child's sixteenth birthday, So happy birthday to Asper. Michael is in charge of taking him to actually get his permit, his driving permit. I have gotten the medical forms done. I'm certain that if there is a form, I will probably wind up filling it out. But he can go to the DMV. Deal with this. This experience, this advantace vertical ownership. I love it.

00:05:03
Speaker 3: I think that'll already be fantastic, and you know they'll always remember having done that together, and hopefully it will be a one time experience.

00:05:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, hopefully they finish it that first time. I think the permit's not that hard. I think they give the permit out to anyone who's got the medical forms right, because you have to learn to drive somehow, right, so there's no as long as you pass the eye exam and have your medical form, then they would give anyone a permit. Actually getting a license is a different matter, that's more involved, but we can't do that till you're six months permitted anyway.

00:05:32
Speaker 3: So okay, Yeah, that's changed since I was a sixteen year old in Pennsylvania.

00:05:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's changed in a lot of places that they do more graduated licensing. It's probably a good thing, but yeah, it's going to be We're going to go through it a lot to get all those hours behind the wheel anyway. Summer summer. So Sarah, what are you looking forward to this summer?

00:05:56
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm looking forward to a lot. I mean, first of all, as I said, like the variation in routine. I don't mind driving the kids to school on my way to work, but I won't be able to do that, and I just think it'll be nice to like shake things up. I like that they'll be doing different stuff. And I have a very call light summer which I'm embracing and looking forward to. I have a call heavy fall in winter, so it's not like that doesn't come with a cost, but still I'm going to embrace it. I think it's because I requested so many different weeks off for various travel things that they were just like whatever, you could just take a bunch of call in October and November and it'll be fine. Anyway, we have a bunch of trips embedded in there, all of them with family. My husband and I are doing a little retreat, but that's in May, so that'll be before the summer. But yeah, a couple of short ones, a family celebration in Chicago. I'm going to be coming to Philadelphia, which we can discuss, and I'm definitely gonna see Laura, so that'll be really really fun. And then we've had this Alaska Cruise slash Vancouver Adventure on the docket for a long time. We actually booked it in twenty twenty one, and we didn't feel comfortable going when the time came, so twenty twenty three it was, and I'm super super excited for that one.

00:07:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, that'll be really cool. And having older kids on the cruise is probably an upside of having waited two years. Yeah.

00:07:18
Speaker 3: The funny thing is exactly Genevieve would have been four, I guess, which would have been Okay. I believe the Disney Kids Club is open to over age three, so you know, I thought about that kind of an advance, and I think it would have been okay, But now I guess she would have been three. Yeah, so she would have been like on the border, and she might have been not so thrilled. Now I know they'll be absolutely thrilled to go off on their own and play with their friends who are coming with us and be a little bit more independent.

00:07:46
Speaker 1: So you're right.

00:07:46
Speaker 3: It probably worked in my favor. Although my friend had a third baby in the interim, so I think it'll be a little harder for her.

00:07:52
Speaker 1: So it worked out less for her. And now that they have to deal with that, well, well, you know, but he's cute and it's gonna be fun. You get the upside of having a cute baby on the trip, but he's not yours, so you don't have to have to deal with it. Yeah, we are among the random things. I mean, we have a couple of trips which are great, but I don't need to go too much into them as this, but random things. I'm going to a Phish concert, so just to clarify, I'm not like a lifelong fish fan or anything. I eat the fish food, non dairy ice cream that been and dairy's bikes, so I'm constantly exposed to this word fish in my freezer as a dessert I can actually eat now. But the fish is coming to the Man Center in Philadelphia, which is I mean literally, it's like fifteen minutes from my house. So I was looking through the summer catalog and it's like a band I recognized, and I knew from just culturally out there that they're very much a touring band, like they are a live music band. So they've had a couple of songs that people probably know from radio play since the eighties or whatever, but they are also known for jamming for a long time and improvising and stuff like that. So I think it'll be fun to see them in concert. And so Michael and I are going to that. Sam and I are going to Maine. This is his Christmas present that he wanted to go to Maine. So we're gonna eat a lot of lobster while we're there. We're going on a lobster boat. We're gonna go to a Kadia. It'll be really fun. Sarah's gonna come visit here, just so a shout out. This will be in early July. We'll post the details of the meetup on our Patreon page. I know we have a couple of people in the Philadelphia area who are part of that who want to come. But if you are not in that and don't have any plans of joining, I just don't want to really like announce everyone's whereabouts on the podcast that goes to thousands of people or whatever. But just email me and I will tell you where we will be and when and you can come join us and we would love to see yay. So just you just throw that in there.

00:09:56
Speaker 3: You're like, and by the way, we're doing a meet up, so yeah, we're doing a meet up.

00:10:00
Speaker 1: We all do a meet up, yes, but the exact details and location and time and all that. Just email me to get that. If you're gonna be in the Philadelphia area in very early July, and then like not waking up at six thirty in the morning, I think that's my my summer treat.

00:10:18
Speaker 3: I will definitely be waking up well before six thirty in the morning because I do plan on running the summer, and well, we know how how to get so.

00:10:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, well probably I should like maybe I should like wake up at six thirty like twice a week and then run those mornings or something, because yeah, it gets hot here, although there's usually there's a little more gift to it. There's there's often at least like one day in the week where it would have been in the seventies for the entire morning anyway, So Heaven, Yeah, you're so lucky. Heaven. Well, we pay for it when it's leading on January two, yeah, versus July two anyway. So yeah, we're we're gonna talk a little bit more about camps and summer tips and all. So why don't we take a quick ad break and then we'll be back with more on that. So we are back talking all things summer planning, our summer intentions. Sarah, what are your kids doing this year?

00:11:23
Speaker 3: So we actually have less camp scheduled for the kids than in most summers I can remember, except for the COVID summer twenty twenty. I don't think we did any camp that year. But I don't think they're were any camps that year, even in Florida, believe it or not. So this year we have five weeks of camp for all of the kids, the big kids. Of that five weeks, three of them are this quasi overnight situation where they go to a local camp about I don't know, forty five to four to tim and it's to an hour away and then they stay from Monday morning until Friday afternoon.

00:11:57
Speaker 1: I have jokingly started to call it the worst of both.

00:11:59
Speaker 3: Worlds, because I feel like it's all of the getting them.

00:12:03
Speaker 1: Ready, packing them up, blah blah blah, but like none of the.

00:12:06
Speaker 3: Like real the nice piece you get on a weekend when your kids are away camp.

00:12:12
Speaker 1: It's going to be great, though.

00:12:13
Speaker 3: I think they'll enjoy it, and for them, I hope that it's really really fun. They're going with our neighbors, which actually might make the driving situation a little bit easier, So I'm excited about the potential for carpool for a camp of that distance. And then the rest of the time, Genevieve's not going to that camp obviously. She has five weeks total of day camp, and those weeks are all broken up by trips that we're taking. And most of the camps that the kids have chosen this year are actually more specialty camps. Like in the past we've had them go to more generalized day camp. This time it's more dance camp, soccer camp, gymnastics camp, et cetera. So I have a spreadsheet, which I don't know if I learned that from you or what, but I don't know how anybody could do this without either A printed calendar would actually work as like a visual way to do this, but I think a spreadsheet is even easier. I have a very simple and apple notes I at years of like Excel or Fancier, but mine works great and I couldn't have kept track what we were doing otherwise, especially with the weeks of travel like mixed up with the weeks of camp and fourth of July being kind of a weird half week this year, so it got complex. Yours must have a lot of columns.

00:13:21
Speaker 1: Yes it does. Yes, the camp spreadsheet has returned for something like it's seventh or eighth year. Hair for anyone who's just coming to this. The camp spreadsheet, it's really a camp in summer spreadsheet, but it's how you plan out the summer. And what I do is I have the names of my children across the top, and I have the weeks of summer down the left hand side, so each cell is an individual week, and that way I can sort of block in when we have vacations, like which weeks were traveling. You know, put in where the kids are each week. So then if oh kids are away for an overnight camp, for instance, then that matters for like the driving for someone else. You know, you just have to It's not a good idea to have four children in four different day camps, for instance, in a week, and so you have to make sure that that isn't happening because then the driving would be ridiculous. But if two kids are gone on an overnight camp, then you could have two kids who are home being something else, or maybe one kid isn't somewhere and that's the week they can do some fun stuff with ur nanny or with me or with Michael or whatever. If we each took you know, one day to do something, that could be a pretty cool week for that child. Anyway, that's the camp spreadsheet. It just helps you make more mindful and logistically smart decisions as you do summer planning. But yeah, we're doing I didn't feel it like you. I didn't feel every week for everyone I've we have childcare. The kids like to have some downtime. They'll want to go places, amusement parks. I am sure we have our pool is now renovated and we will be open, so I'm sure they'll want to do that too. Or we could go tubing or whatever, or bike riding and I can sort of I mean, we're traveling a lot this summer too, but I can sort of flex my schedule. We now have childcare for some hours on Saturdays for Henry, so it's possible for me to work on Saturdays if I needed to, which means that I could take a day off during the week and do something else, for instance. So yeah, excited about the various day camps and such. They're definitely at the age where they choose what they want to do, so everyone's doing random things. We have a cooking camp, we have a engineering camp, we have a Pokemon camp. We'll see did they.

00:15:49
Speaker 3: Find the camps themselves, Like did they google and like find them?

00:15:54
Speaker 1: It's more that they have asked me, like I would like to do a camp like this, And then I look around in the people who have programs around here. There's a couple of the major commercial camps that are operating in this area. And then you know different like universities have stuff or businesses do things, like there's a pottery studio that does a camp, you know, so that's kind of how it happened. That's really cool.

00:16:18
Speaker 3: I do feel like maybe I just wasn't as aware, but I feel like a lot of businesses have discovered that a camp can be really nice, adjunctive kind of auxiliary business over the summer, because I don't feel like there were this many specialty experiences available, certainly not when we were growing up, but even like when Adabel was little. I just feel like everywhere I turn, every single activity my kids do, they all have camps. And I know this is very regional where I live. I actually think there are don't hate me, but like more camp spots than there are kids going to camp, and camp is not terribly expensive. I know that this is completely flipped in other areas, like California in particular. You have to like jump on the way the spots and camps are like, you know, five hundred and six hundred dollars a week. Here, there are lots of really great specialty camps to be had for like half that, and it's not terribly hard to get a spot. So I just feel lucky, like and I'm glad we're in this era where businesses are doing.

00:17:15
Speaker 1: That yeah, I would say in our area it's it's a mix. I mean, I think there's a lot of stuff. There's fewer things that would run from say eight in the morning to five in the afternoon. So if you are looking for full time coverage, you're in a bit more of a Yes, highly competitive market, and a lot of camps are fairly expensive too, And I know some of that's probably just you know, the labor market, and you know, if you're having to pay people to work there, that raises that all wages are going up, you know, because and so it's harder to find people to do these sort of spot jobs. You know that people it's not necessarily a job everyone would want, so you know, the things have been fairly pricely. I've definitely been aware of that, which is one reason like we didn't book every week. I mean I just say, like, well, you know, given that I'm already paying for childcare, like they can have some downtime and figure out things to do during the day. And in fact, you know, sending them to the arcade for like two hours a day, three days a week would be vastly cheaper than most camps, and probably they would enjoy it a lot too interesting.

00:18:31
Speaker 3: I'm actually not sure that math would be true where I live. Like I think I'm thinking of like the the indoor playground that my kids like with all the arcade stuff, and it's like very expensive, And I'm thinking about the daily rate of camp I think camp here might be I think I might be like a lucky camp zone. Maybe maybe we're just saturated with camps. Everyone come to Florida. Well again, everyone wants to leave, Like, no one wants to be here one hundred percent understand.

00:18:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, So if people aren't spending their summers in Florida, then yes, there would be more spots than children. So just a more set of practical tips. I know both of us make a summer fun list. This is a great family activity because you should ask your kids, your partner what they would like to put on here, Like what are the things that would make you feel at the end of summer like you have had a good summer. You could ask people, well, what was your favorite thing we did last summer? This can be an enlightening experience because sometimes it's something that you wouldn't have pegged as the big winner, but it might be for them. Or when you think about last summer. What do you most remember That could be a good question, Or have any of your friends talked about doing something over the summer that sounds cool to you? And you can make obviously things that you want to do on this list too, Sarah, how about you? What have? Yeah? I'm what's one I'm excited I do want to do.

00:19:48
Speaker 3: I don't know if I did a list last year, But for me, I almost feel like it's it's kind of like you're seeking to enjoying winter, like to come up with these holiday things because it's the gloomy sea like. I want to find that find some really fun indoor stuff and just things to break up the fact that we can't be.

00:20:02
Speaker 1: As free outside.

00:20:03
Speaker 3: And one thing that for me always goes with my kind of summer list making is my summer reading list, because I like to read really fun books. I often use modern missus Darcy's list, and she's actually it's for purchase this year, I one hundred percent and planning on getting her list and buying it and supporting her and seeing what's on there of like opening a present or something, and will probably request many of those books from the library and we'll spend some of my summer enjoying them. So in addition to actual physical outings, many of which might be just trips to various ice cream shops in the area, I like to do the summer reading thing and performances like it's a great time to you know, go to plays or again for us it's like indoor activities, but there's still plenty of stuff.

00:20:46
Speaker 1: To do phish concerts as the case may be. You should also really think through the childcare situation, just because there's always most families have some sort of change in schedule over the summer. If your kids are in full time daycare, there's less of it. But if you're any child who is in school, whether you have a nanny or not, like there's going to be some sort of change involved in this schedule. And a key thing that a lot of people encounter is that the driving needs are different and possibly greater. Because many schools have a bus, or you have you're zoned to be within walking distance, whereas that may not be the case for whatever camps your children are doing, and so the driving may be longer, more involved, multiple stops. It may not be something that you can or wish to do every day, so maybe you should think about how you could lessen that over the course of the summer.

00:21:56
Speaker 3: Yeah, we will actually have more driving needs now, Oh not necessarily. Actually, I'm super like lucky and that some of the camps are right next to each other, Like there's this one street where there's a lot of kids' activities.

00:22:08
Speaker 1: It's like it'll be like a bus.

00:22:10
Speaker 3: However, that's in the opposite direction of my workplace, and a lot of these camps start a little bit too late for me, and I wasn't planning on doing any early care, so our nanny will be driving more than she was during the school year, but I'm sure she'll be fine with them.

00:22:26
Speaker 1: Yeah. I actually one camp that some of the children are in I specifically signed up for aftercare, not that we'll really use it till six o'clock. We only need it to like four thirty. But that enables one driver to pick up some kids at another camp and then head over there and get them without it being a problem. So orchestrating it so one person can do it keeps it from being a disaster on a day where that might happen inadvertently. For instance, you know you wouldn't want to I don't know if the kids want to go or you don't want to leave them there stuck late. You know. I'm obviously there are people still there, but you wouldn't want to do that totally. See, you know. Another thing to figure out obviously your own vacations, which probably you've sorted through by this point, but sort of workflow planning. If your colleagues or team members are taking vacations that you know when that is you are planning for that you have figured out any deadlines that need to be changed or met early because of people being gone. But in addition to understanding your own vacation, you should definitely make sure you understand the vacation schedule of anyone you are working closely with, because there are often various disasters that happen along those lines.

00:23:48
Speaker 3: I will tell you that, if you're able to do it, go ahead and depending on your industry, put in your twenty twenty four travel dates and ask for them, because I we're already making our next year's calendar and that's just the reality of what I do. And yeah, it just has to be. If I thought about it now, I wouldn't be able to go anywhere. It would be sad.

00:24:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, well so the funny Yeah, the interesting thing with that, So then you have to choose stuff that you would do during those weeks that you correct.

00:24:15
Speaker 3: I have no idea like what we're going to do. I mean I have some ideas, but I don't have anything firmly decided. But I just arbitrarily picked some weeks to block them off so that six months or now, I don't realize that there's a patient in every single slot and know where to put them.

00:24:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, makes sense. Now you're going to be exercising differently during the summer, and we have a lot of people thinking about if their exercise routine will change too. Yeah.

00:24:39
Speaker 3: I don't think I will change much this summer. That's the thing, my normal thing. And I think it is important to think about if you have a seasonality, like oh, what would be more fun to do? Would you want to do some swimming? Like is this the time to try a triathlon or whatever? And in past year, summer has been my time to be like, no, I'm going to run less, I'm going to do more strength. This year, I just decide I'm going to gut it out and I'm going to like use the summer as heat training to make me a stronger runner when it gets cooler, So this will be an interesting experience. I have never done a high mileage period of running during a Florida summer, so wish me luck.

00:25:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, well better you than me. I don't know. I'll probably just keep running my little two to three mile runs here and there. But in terms of big summer work goals like this is I know sometimes where people are just like kind of hanging on during summer because maybe their childcare isn't as many hours as they have during the school year. You know, if you've got more driving, more camp driving, so you're not getting as much done, you're taking weeks off, so you're just trying to get through the stuff that you have to do over the summer. But if you're in an industry where it's a little slower over the summer, maybe this is a time where you can accomplish some big work goal that keeps getting pushed off because you're too busy the rest of the year. I know that I plan to finish the novel I am working on. Obviously, I've written a draft already, but I've been going through and revising, doing some very heavy revisions so hopefully I have a draft of that by midsummer, when I plan to take a writing retreat. So that is on my list of things to do this summer. I am getting some time off from family stuff, and I will probably use it as my writing retreat to spend some time with the book.

00:26:28
Speaker 3: Sounds awesome and maybe relaxing as well. And we fully give you also permission to make summer just you know, a more relaxing time. Or you're focused on non work things, you're focused on hobbies, you're focused on travel, you're focused on yourself. But maybe if there's a work thing that's that's fun, like a project that is related to work that you always wanted to do, but isn't like the regular grind of what you generally pump.

00:26:50
Speaker 1: Well that's my novel. I mean like, yeah, that's perfect no sense that this is. This is not like the time management book the VANDERCAM enterprise needs to crank out next. It's not no, you're right, podcasts, it's not the speeches paying the bills. It's something totally different. It's a fun thing. It's fun. It's the fun thing. Yeah, yeah, So.

00:27:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, I am hoping I can create a book proposal over the summer to get it ready to submit by the end of the summer. I plan on doing less. I'm not going to run a vest Late Plans academy in the summer because I just don't think the vibe is right for.

00:27:22
Speaker 1: That kind of content. So I'll have more time and I'm excited to move forward with that.

00:27:28
Speaker 2: Yay.

00:27:29
Speaker 1: Well pivoting a little bit to more you know, the products and superficial aspects of summer. What are you wearing in the summer. I guess you have warm weather year round, so it probably doesn't change that much. But is there summer fashion that Yeah, it doesn't change. It doesn't change.

00:27:43
Speaker 3: I mean I honestly, mosquitoes are like, you know, you make this choice, like do I cover up my body for the mosquitos or do I expose my body for the heat, And it's like a trade off. And so I love the idea of like little floaty summer dresses. I'm looking at one right now, I'm recording on my closet.

00:28:01
Speaker 1: It is so cute.

00:28:02
Speaker 3: Here we go, sorry, listeners, but isn't this adorable? I'm like super into this.

00:28:06
Speaker 1: Oo that is a dark I can and we can describe it. It's got like patches of color. It's nice and flowy. It's it's floral.

00:28:14
Speaker 3: It's super flowy and super light. It's by Marine Layer, and I do plan on wearing that during some summer fun this year.

00:28:22
Speaker 1: But like then, the.

00:28:23
Speaker 3: Mosquitoes just have full access to all types of body parts, so I'm gonna have to cover myself up with deet. So yeah, we don't dress really any differently during the summer. I still have my a gold cutoffs that I felt like I had to ask my reader's permission to wear and they said, yes, go for it. And you know now that now it's been me my third summer wearing them, and they're still going strong. I really want a pair of white wide leg or flare jeans. That is my summer fashion quest.

00:28:51
Speaker 1: Summer fashion quest, I like that. I'm always wary of white just because I feel like I spill on myself. I don't somebody else does. But yeah, I struggle with this every summer. I don't like the way shorts look on me. I mean, they look amazing on other people, but I feel like I have just the wrong body build for most shorts, and so I'm struggling with what to do with that. I bought like some Jeane cutoffs that were like really comfortable, and they hit it just the wrong. It's like just where my calves come out, so it looks like I have very wide legs, very unflattering. So I'm still starting through all this. I may just start wearing dresses, more skirts and dresses. Yeah, and they can be I think for so long, I didn't, you know, when I had like nursing babies and stuff, because it's just a dress is a disaster for that. But I don't need to worry about that, so I could. I could totally wear a dress and it will be comfortable and it won't be shorts cutting across the worst part of your leg. And yeah, that's probably the way I should go.

00:30:01
Speaker 3: I want a full report on the new summer dress wardrobe and skirts. Don't forget skirts. It's skirts skirts out there.

00:30:09
Speaker 1: And how about swimsuits? Do you own one? That's uh? I do.

00:30:13
Speaker 3: I just don't like actually like putting them on and getting in the water. But I'll work on that. I mean, it is really hot, and honestly, I was at a pool party and I was like, why did I not wear bathing suit? Because I'm dying, like this was a week ago. So yeah, I will wear my bathing suits. I don't know what my problem is.

00:30:32
Speaker 1: Said, is an interesting thing. Yeah, as I've gotten to know your personality more, I'm like, Sarah really never wants to go in the water. It's true. Like we've we've met at beaches for several times now, and I'm like, I'm going in the water. I was like, Okay, I think I'm gonna go take a nap. Well, I also really like naps.

00:30:48
Speaker 3: That's not necessarily anti water right now, but yeah, no, it's not my not my recreational choice of activity. I don't trust oceans very much. I can't even watch when my husband takes them in the ocean, and I try to like look away because it makes me anxious. So Therapy Sessions Slash podcast.

00:31:05
Speaker 1: Episode Okay, okay, but you have a swimsuit. Yeah. I have multiple swimsuits, some of which are barely worn. So I bought these like speedo ones that have a little rooshing in the in the front. They're black and so they you know, cover everything and stay up and you can swim in them. But they don't look just terribly like matronly as some of the ones that you know you can wind up with. But that's probably a work in progress as well. I really need to get on that. I am happy with my Sharyck's shoes. Though this was an Instagram, I was succumbed. You know. They keep showing you the ads of somebody being like, I walked twelve miles around Barcelona with no blisters. Like, I don't know if that will be the case or not. I'm not going to Barcelona, but you know, it would be great to have a pair of cute shoes you can walk twelve miles in and not get a blister. I don't know if that is that's probably overstating things. But they are very comfortable and I like them, so I will probably wind up wearing them. Big chunks of the summer, all right, And what are you eating? What are your favorite summer meals and treats?

00:32:12
Speaker 3: Just lots of ice cream, taking the kids for various different types of ice cream. I need to get to salt and straw, which we now have in Miami, which is very exciting. So that will be a field trip that I will take. I don't want to steal yours because when you said yours. I was like, yep, so you can say it. Well, I've been getting into these like fruit popsicles.

00:32:33
Speaker 1: I don't know. We found some version and now again I don't remember what the brand name is, but it was at Costco. We got a four pack of different fruit popsicles. But it was like real fruit, so it didn't it wasn't like that weird frozen sugar like. There were pieces of real fruit in it. And it was actually very tasty because when you freeze anything like you freeze bananas and put them in smooth as, it tastes ice cream basically, you know, So that was my feeling about this. It was equivalent. We will probably have a lot of strawberry Asie lemonades from Starbucks, because that's something we really have our order going here. So Jasper and I get the strawberry sie lemonade with the strawberries, Ruth likes hers without the strawberries, and then Sam has gotten into the strawberry cream frappuccinos, which of course is probably like the worst thing you could order at Starbucks ever, But yeah, we wind up there a lot.

00:33:24
Speaker 3: That's so funny. But it was the lobster rolls I didn't want to steal from you.

00:33:27
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, no. Well, Sam and I are going to Maine, and you know, the whole point of being there is that we're going to have lots of lobster rolls. I love, you know, lobster with mayonnaise on a bun. It's really good. If you can eat it by the water, that's even better. I will never say no to a lobster roll, Like it's on a menu. I'm getting it. Yeah, Well it's good stuff. It's good stuff. So lobs of lobster. Well, there's also one in Asbury Park, which is we're near where we go to the beach, so we might wind up eating there as well. A cousin's main lobster. Sorry I should have mentioned that. Ye our favorite foods t Maybe some day, yes, some day? All right. So the question comes from a listener who is transitioning out of full time daycare to elementary school. And yet this elementary school, for whatever reason, is eight thirty to twelve thirty only it's.

00:34:18
Speaker 3: A transitional kindergartenk Oh yeah, interesting. What is that some places have it? We don't have it. I think it's for like, oh man, I should have researched. I feel like it's for kids who are like a little young for kindergarten maybe and then are still going to do another year of kindergarten afterwards.

00:34:37
Speaker 1: Maybe. Okay, well that makes sense because I was wondering. I was like, wait, is kindergarten? I mean, we have half day kindergarten here in my district, and it's like the bane of people's existence. Likely it's getting changed. I feel like that's super it's really old school, really old school. But I was surprised to hear that somebody else had that. Anyway, be that as it may, this listener's child will be going to school from eight thirty to twelve thirty. Only now her daycare has an option of an aftercare starting at noon. However, this person would have to get her child from this pre kindergarten to daycare, which, as you can imagine, would be a bit of a hassle in the middle of the day. So she says she could hire a person to take her there every day. But obviously, once you have hired that person, seems like, well they could just take her home and be in charge of her and then take her to activities as well. So she's considering thinking of getting an aftercare nanny because then that person would be available for driving in other things, would love your advice on what she should do.

00:35:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, So she gave us different options, and I was like, well, if it sounds like these are all options too, So if they really are all in the budget, I would one hundred percent choose the nanny plus activities option. And I mean, honestly, if you are unable to find a nanny willing to work those afternoon hours to do what we've done and do the whole kind of okay, then nanny can.

00:36:01
Speaker 1: Maybe help get the kid ready for school.

00:36:02
Speaker 3: Or maybe the nanny comes in at nine or ten am and then stays, you know, until dinner time, or you work out, you know, maybe they want to work thirty five hours, like whatever kind of works for the nanny and for you to be helpful, because the nice thing is then you can have her take the child to activities and you will hop back up if and when, and probably when your child is sick.

00:36:22
Speaker 1: Yes, when she cannot go to school from eight thirty to twelve thirty some day, you have an employee who works for you who could then come cover it. Because if they're a full time employee, they're not doing something else, right.

00:36:34
Speaker 3: Yes, I mean that's that's clearly the more expensive option of these, these that are laid out so that.

00:36:40
Speaker 1: May or may not be feasible.

00:36:41
Speaker 3: But if this is just more like what should I do, I can do any of these, that's what I would pick.

00:36:46
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, If you were going to try to get somebody, you know, get from school to day care, I think you definitely need to look into the other parents, like who else is in the same situation as you, If they're are other families going from your transitional kindergarten to daycare in the afternoon. If you could get three families and then each of you does one to two days a week, and that's something that you guys can swing with your work schedules, like maybe you work from home mostly and so you would be available to do this. You just don't want to take it on as a responsibility every single day. That could work, you know, it's just carpools are sometimes better than others, right, you know, you're relying on the other parents also thinking this is a good solution and one that they want to stick with. That could be an option as well, and certainly would be more affordable most likely.

00:37:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, you'll have to let us know what you end up choosing. I think you can't go wrong with any of these. And it's an exciting time starting real school after daycare, Like that's a big milestone.

00:37:53
Speaker 1: Yay. Yeah, all right, Sarah, I love of the week. What do you have for us this week?

00:37:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm going with some summer products so our family house. Some sunscreen is the Alta MD Pure. It's I love it. It just rubs in so nicely.

00:38:08
Speaker 1: It is a.

00:38:11
Speaker 3: Like a mineral barrier sunscreen, not a chemical, which I just prefer, especially for younger kids. But it actually rubs in. It doesn't like leave your skin all white and pasty, and it just works like if I wear it, I don't think I've ever had it really let me down, even though I'm not the best about reapplying, So I think it's just good stuff. I think it's like forty seven SPF or something. And then my other go to summer product that I often have like sitting next to the sunscreen in all my bags is Ben's Mosquito Repellent. It has a lot of deet in it.

00:38:39
Speaker 1: I need it. And you've got your mosquitos. I'm up here dealing with the moths in the classet that I'm trying to get rid of. We all have our little pests that we have to sort through. Honestly, I just like the innovation of spray sunscreen. And I know some of them are better than others or whatever, but you know, when you have five kids, not having to rub it into everyone and like make sure everything, you just like line them up and spray. Now, obviously the older kids you can't really do it. They are kind of in charge of themselves, and so I keep checking, like did you do your sunscreen? And you can very quickly find out that and then they didn't when somebody has, you know, got a nice little sunburn after your day at the beach, which there's limited things you can do about once your children are old enough, but to definitely kind of to keep encouraging the sunscreen and like, please just do it, please, just do it, please, just do it. Having multiple bottles around so it's never like multiple bottles. Yeah, this is not an area to cheap out on. I mean not even just like you know, getting the fancy sunscreen like Sarah, Like even if you're buying like the cheapest possible version having multiple bottles of it, because it's going to walk off, right, like somebody's gonna take it into the car, and then it's not by your door, right or you know, you've put it in a beach bag and then it's not available on your porch when you're trying to get somewhere. So just many many bottles. You can clean it up and this fall just dump them all or whatever that it needs to go. But you know, this is one area where I think a little bit of redundancy is going to increase the chances of it getting used. Absolutely all right, Well, this has been best of both worlds. We've been talking about summer plans, sum are fun, various logistical things dealing with summer. We will be back next week with more on making work and life fit together. Thanks for listening.

00:40:26
Speaker 3: You can find me Sarah at the shoebox dot com or at the Underscore Shoebox on Instagram, and you.

00:40:33
Speaker 2: Can find me Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.

00:40:37
Speaker 1: This has been the best of both worlds podcasts. Please join us next time for more on making work and life work together.