ok.... so..... I am going to think out loud for a few minutes - and then let you guys shred me. This isn't a season problem. This isn't a direct government or school district problem. This seems to be a "Uh oh - I had kids and they're really expensive" problem. This feels like one of those "issues" that is a symptom of MANY societal problems, not in any order: - Low wages. The fact that it takes two people to make roughly what previous generations could do with one breadwinner. KB posted about this earlier today - Breakdown of the family. Where are the dads in this story? I think I only read of one couple who were sharing the financial burdens. The majority of those quotes came from single moms getting paid too little. Where in the hell are all of the dads? (I know there are some working dads out there struggling and I would say "where are the moms?"). - Unreasonable Expectations. I get it. Little Johnny and Suzie down the road get to go to space camp this year. But guess what - they're going to get new cars when they turn 16 and their parents will pay for college too. Some people get the extra stuff and some people don't. Summer camps are "extra stuff". I'm not necessarily opposed to year round school. From an academic sense - it seems logical. But it doesn't solve the childcare issue. If it's the same number of days off - it's going to be the same problem for working parents. I see it every year with my coworkers and the other parents at school. But "camp" in February in large swaths of the country will SUCK compared to "camp" in the summer. I don't know if I have a point... this article just kinda.... rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe the author is surprised that it's totally fucking expensive to have kids? Or that it's REALLY inconvenient to your career and hopes and dreams to have them? I dunno... low wages, busted up families, it all plays a part. I think I'm getting a little tired of people having kids without planning for it and wondering who is going to solve the problem? My wife and I chose to have kids.... and by today's standards we have a HUGE family. And we go without a LOT of extra stuff that other people have because of it. But I also acknowledge that I'm super fortunate. I earn a decent wage and my wife and I tackle this crap together. I am a lucky bastard.“I just want her to be able to do those great activities that would make her summer memorable,” said Ms. Castillejos of her daughter. Instead, her daughter’s summers are looking like the ones she remembers from her own childhood: “By the time I was 12 or 13, my mom had to leave me at home by myself. She had no other choice.”