Ask a working parent what keeps them up at night as June approaches, and the answer isn’t a child’s math grade—it’s the ticking clock until the end of the school year, when schedules and budgets are pushed to their limits.
Summer vacation, once rooted in Canada’s agricultural calendar, now feels like a historic relic ill-suited to the realities of modern families. Today’s parents, especially those working full-time, find themselves contorting their lives—and their wallets—to fill a two-month gap that school leaves wide open. As camp registrations open, the rush is immediate and all-consuming: one missed deadline and families face either exorbitant specialty camps or, worse, nothing at all.
The numbers are revealing: affordable municipal day camps hover near $200–$300 per week per child, but even these fill up in minutes, leaving many parents to consider pricier options that can run over $1,000 weekly. “Affording summer camp each year for two children is extremely stressful,” Ottawa’s Daria Kathnelson told CTVNews.ca, recounting how vacation days and annual bonuses vanish into summer care—family trips and rest put on indefinite hold. For single parents, the challenge is even more acute, with gaps in coverage and short camp days (often ending by 3 or 4 p.m.) directly clashing with work schedules and threatening job performance.
The patchwork solutions are familiar to many: calling in favours from grandparents, orchestrating carpool alliances with neighbours, and negotiating flexible hours at work. Financial planner Ho points out that organization and early action are essential, with calendar reminders and research starting months in advance. But these are workarounds, not solutions. As costs rise and options shrink, some, like Saskatoon’s Mark Petrisor, question the very logic of a two-month school break in today’s society. Should summer vacation continue as is, or is it time for a system overhaul?
Until policymakers address the disconnect, families will persist with spreadsheets, group chats, and early alarm clocks—hoping organization and community can shore up where systems fall short. And for the working parents of Barrie and beyond, “summer break” will remain less a season of rest and more a marathon of endurance.
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From camps to costs, why summers are so stressful for working parents
