I don’t know about you, but “summer” has arrived full-force in our house! School’s out, it is HOT and all Ethan (8-years-old) wants to do is play video games or watch TV!

About 2-3 months ago, along with all of the other parents raising kids with special needs I know, I considered what our summer plans would entail; I started looking through all of the camp offerings back in April, and in addition to thinking how to go about selecting activities…some serious worrying set in.
1) It was a scheduling nightmare to juggle the optimal camp dates with the trips we want to take to visit family…
2) Then I started to consider the hours offered by day-camps compared to the hours I want to work…
3) Next I started thinking about all of the “taxi-time” I would spend in the car shuttling Ethan back and forth to the camps (not to mention the price tag of the associated time at the gas pump)…
4) Then the enrollment fees…
5) Finally the “training” of all of the camp employees (most often teenage kids also on summer break) on all-things-Ethan, Asperger’s Syndrome, Sensory Processing Disorder, challenging behaviors, etc…
…and before long, I realized I was so stressed out I wasn’t accomplishing anything but “chasing my tail.”

So, I gave my “tail” a break and chose to put those worries aside for several days and consider my options.

A) I could quit working for the summer…No, not really an option…scratch that!
B) I could look for a daycare with patient, understanding staff and administrators who could handle the issues associated with Ethan’s special needs…(and again the thinking and worrying set in…even before I considered tuition, so I tossed that option aside without a second thought)…
C) I could hire a nanny…
…but, I didn’t really need - or want - a full-time nanny; I knew that. I work part time specifically so that I can cater my hours to Ethan’s schedule and special needs. During the summer months, I love spending time with Ethan at the pool and the movie theater. I adore curling up together on the couch with a new chapter book, of Ethan’s choosing, and reading until we’re so relaxed we fall asleep in the middle of the afternoon. I look forward to making homemade “electric green” popsicles together and eating them in our backyard on the hottest of hot Texas days…I knew I didn’t want a nanny. But, I also knew that with my work schedule, I couldn’t “do it all” as I’ve done in previous summers (at least not without falling apart physically and mentally).

I needed help – but reasonably-priced help for a limited number of hours each week…and not someone that I’d have to train a lot or spend a bunch of time in the car to get to. What I needed was a responsible individual who would spend time with Ethan in and around our house and would be willing to work on some of the skills I don’t want to see disappear over the summer. That’s when the epiphany struck: what kind of individual has the time and energy in the summer months to spend time with little kids? Other kids…bigger kids…teen-agers!

I spent a day or two considering this thought…was I crazy to think it would work? Was I missing something? After thinking it through a few more days I sent off an email to a neighbor and friend with 3 kids older than Ethan (one who has babysat for us previously) asking if the two oldest might be interested in “a summer job” at our house. This family is a wonderful, Christian family with patient, thoughtful kids I’d love for Ethan to emulate. As luck would have it, the oldest was interested + available and before I knew it we had worked out a schedule!

[Insert one long sigh of sweet relief!]

While we’re just a week into summer vacation at our house, I have to say I’m feeling pretty great about this decision. Ethan is hanging with a super-cool high-schooler (working on lots of social skills), I’m getting in some professional time AND taking Ethan to the pool and the movies; plus we’re paying a fraction of what we would’ve paid for a nanny or a variety of day-camps (and gas to get to-and-from said day-camps), saving my already significant collection of gray hairs and frowning forehead wrinkles from premature aging.

Happy Summer!

What are you and your kids doing this summer? Do you work from home or outside the home? Are you utilizing summer school (or Extended School Year – ESY – services from the public schools)? Is your child attending day camps in the community? I’d love to “hear” what is working (or what isn’t working) for you this year or what you’ve found to be successful in previous years; please leave a comment below.

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Leigh Attaway Wilcox is a writer and editor for the projectLD family of companies. Leigh is Assistant Editor of the internationally acclaimed AutismSpot.com and her work can be found on many of the pLDNetworks sites. Leigh is the author of ALL BETTER: A Touch-and-Heal Book published by Piggy Toes Press in 2007. Leigh lives in North Texas with her husband and young son who loves reading, LEGOs, Mario Bros. and also happens to live with Asperger's Syndrome, an Autism Spectrum Disorder.