Worrying about childcare in 2 years

Daycare is awesome but it's only available until your child starts elementary school at the age of 5. After that, kindergarten kicks in and it's full time until around 3PM, Monday to Friday. Unfortunately, a work day for most people is 9-5PM. On top of this, there is about one Professional Development Day at school every month for which there is no school for kids. Here is where "out-of-school care" comes to the rescue. This paid service takes care of all this.

The other day, my sister told me to get on the waitlist for out-of-school care. There is a lot of demand for it and it may take a year or so to get in. I haven't even thought of this yet. In fact, I don't even want to worry about this now. I have no full time job to return to and I have no idea what I will be doing in two years when Tristan starts school. We may not even be living in this neighborhood. Which school would we even waitlist for? I suppose it wouldn't hurt to waitlist at a few different places since there is no fee required but having to do so right now sort of makes me mad. It really is a crazy world out there if you need childcare help.

So there's out-of-school care, great. What about summer care? There is no school for the entire July and August and even some parts of June. What do young kids do? Summer camp could be an option but I don't think those would go for that long. I also hear they are super expensive. We of course could go on vacation in the summer but France is super hot in the summer and I told Jean-Louis I would never go back there during the summer again. Also, if I were to start a new job, I would only be entitled to two weeks vacation a year. This could be a big problem for us. How do other families do it? We have no family or friends here to help us and there doesn't seem to be a lot of options there for us that won't cost us an arm and a leg. We may have to hire a nanny for the summers. Ugh. A friend of mine suggested babysitting from nearby friends. Unfortunately, I don't have those kinds of friends I can make deals with:(

Since I'm thinking about it now, I did a quick search and came across this article talking about summer care: Cost-Effective Summer Childcare Options. There's definitely lots to think about. When looking for a link for more information on after-school care, I read that "Most offer a full-day summer program." That might be a good option for us too! I can't believe I'm worrying about it now and it's still two years away. It's a crazy world, I tell you!