Non-overlapping spring breaks

Does your spring break overlap with your kids’ spring break? If you’re like me, the answer is usually “no.” Which is annoying and a pain in the butt.

Things get harder for academic parents when kids transition from preschool to K-12 school. While one of the perceived functions of preschools is to care for children while parents are working, that’s not seen as much of a priority for elementary schools.

(And then there’s summer. If your community is like mine, you better get on the ball for summer camp ASAP if you haven’t already!)

Not only does K-12 get out hours before before parents are done with work, there are so many holidays and vacation days for kids that are not enjoyed by the parents. Which creates a huge parenting juggle. (And the way this plays out in many families often involves gender inequities.)

The spectacular part of being an academic is that our schedules have so much flexibility, that we can cook our schedules, to some extent, around the spring breaks of our kids. Compared to other professions, we have little genuine reason to complain. Though I think all working parents are placed in tight situations where they’re expected to work and their kids are expected to not be in school, and often childcare options are slim to none. Our educational and childcare system in the US is built on decades-old assumptions about single-career families that just don’t work nowadays.

How much of your kids’ spring break are you managing to spend with them? Did you plan this when you built your syllabus?