For working parents, summer camps are child care - but not the affordable kind

EXCERPTS

Summer is around the corner, and across the country scores of parents are scrambling to save up for it.

The federal government’s $10-a-day child-care reform is lifting a huge financial burden off the shoulders of households with young children. But it does nothing for dual-income families with children between the ages of 6 and 12 – too old to benefit from Ottawa’s subsidies and too young to entertain themselves independently – who face a yearly two-month child-care gap when school is out.

Paying for camp without stretching family finances thin often requires year-round saving and careful planning months in advance.

To be sure, some parents choose to go all out on summer camps.

(...)