Summer vacations! Happy time for the kids, but harrowing for working parents. Lucky are the few who have able and healthy grandparents to double up as vacation managers. Many others, including many techies, depend on ‘summer camps’ and ‘vacation classes’ that mushroom during these months.
“Such camps and vacation activities are a boon for parents like us. The children don’t get bored and they can be in the company of children. However, they do miss out on so many things that we used to enjoy as kids. I remember going to my grandparents’ house and having a blast. But since my husband and I are working, we can’t leave them behind or take them around. So, whether we like it or not, summer camps are the only resort,” says Aswathy Sujith, who works with Oracle. Her husband, Sujith Babu, works for a software firm at Kuravankonam.
They are planning to send their children, seven-year-old Madhav, and five-and-half-year old Mayukha, to a summer camp at Nanthancode. “Earlier they used to go to the vacation classes in their schools. But I found them quite monotonous. So we are trying out a new place,” says Aswathy.
It has become a regular feature for schools to organise vacation/summer class. The logic behind the effort is that children are familiar with the environment and parents can be sure about their kids’ safety.
Nisha M. who works for Ernst & Young, disagrees with the idea of sending her child to the school during the vacation. “Just imagine going to the same school throughout the year! Unfortunately, I am forced to do that for my five-year-old daughter, Neeraja,” she says.
During the vacation, she goes to her school at Sasthamangalam, where various activities have been organised and after that that there is day care facility at the same school. It is the best option for Nisha and her husband, Amal Vishnudas, a mediaperson. “Well, she is enjoying different activities such as toy making, singing, painting and so on. She wants somebody to play with and there are lots of kids from other schools there. So for the time being, she is very happy,” says Nisha.
Many parents do a lot of research and discussions before finalising a particular place to send their child. K.T. Thomas, who works at IBS, and his wife, Hridya Grace Thomas, working at Ernst & Young, looked around quite a bit before zeroing in on a place. “Our daughter Shreya is just four-and-a-half and we feel it is not quite right to make her go to summer classes. But otherwise we will have to leave her with her grandparents. And they just can’t cope with her all day along. So, we are looking for places where there are plenty of games, dancing, painting and the like,” Thomas says.
Most parents would like a place with transportation facility. Unfortunately, most of these places don’t have pick-and-drop facility. It is a priority, say Deepthi Jewel and Sarath Kiran, who work at Technopark. They are still looking for the best place for their five-year-old son, Aadi. “I browsed the Internet looking for the best option for him. Though there are some exciting places, none of them has transportation facilities. Finally, we’ve located a place at Vattiyoorkavu where they have outdoor and indoor activities,” says Deepthi.
Meanwhile, there are techie couples such as Sajith Sasidharan and Swapna Narayanan, who find the crèche at Park Centre in Technopark very useful. “We leave our elder one, Vajra, there when we come to office and take her back when we go home,” says Sajith.
It is not that these parents don’t take their time off from work during the vacation. In fact, most of them schedule their leaves around this time, according to Aswathy and Nisha.
Nevertheless, the parents can’t help feeling nostalgic about their own childhood and long lazy holidays. “When we were kids, we were left on our own by our parents. We just set out from our home in the morning, indulged in a lot of games and fun along with friends and cousins, all away from the prying eyes of the adults at home. That seems to have changed for our children.”
