Camp Big Brother

Summer is coming and along with planning vacations and camps, comes the adventure of also figuring out, “how can I work / get things done with the kids home all day?”.  I don’t need full time childcare, but I do still need set time each week to work (uninterrupted). In the spirit of building independence (and moving up a parenting level) I have an idea for a new venture: Camp Big Brother. Here is what I have in mind and how I devised this plan.

My son is 9 years old and finishing 3rd grade. My daughter is 5 years old and will start kindergarten in the fall. I got to thinking about it and when I was younger my mom allowed me to stay home alone starting when I was 9 or 10. Completely alone for maybe a half hour while she ran a quick errand. I was totally fine all these times and it also made 3rd/4th grade me feel confident and independent. So then THAT got me thinking: why can’t my older kid be in charge of my younger kid a few mornings a week? Both my husband and I will be home in case of an emergency, but it would be a pretty low stakes way to give him some responsibility and also meet my need of having set time to work. 

So here are the parameters I came up with: I will pay my son each week to watch my daughter for 2-3 mornings per week for up to 3 hours at a time. My husband and I discussed this and weighed if payment should be involved or if this should be an “older sibling duty”. We decided paying him gives an incentive to do well and also allows me to call this “a job” and as such gives structure to it and a list of job duties and qualifications (positive attitude, using kind words). In addition to being paid he has to behave as a camp counselor, and treat his sister as a camper…not his sister. Each Sunday I will help him map out things to do—activities, games, arts and crafts, snacks—things one would do at an actual camp. This is also to prevent the situation of “we are going to watch screens and eat snacks and I will just make sure she stays alive” (ahem). Then when camp begins (in my ideal vision), he is on duty and I am going to work, only to be interrupted for a true emergency (as I type this I am making a note to come up with a list of what qualifies as a true emergency).

I am not sure how this will go, but I am hoping it gives them some time together to play and connect (my daughter has had a rough time as of late sharing her brother with his neighborhood friends) and also an opportunity to build confidence and self reliance. This idea also echoes everything we discussed at our January Parent Speaker Series event, the screening of Chasing Childhood and the mission of the film’s partner organization Let Grow. We have a family vacation, a road trip to see extended family, and (probably) one week of camp planned, so this won’t be every week all summer, but if I could get, say, 6 weeks or so with this set up?--I’ll take it! 

I’d love to hear what you think of this plan, if you are doing something similar, or what plans you have in store for summer! Email me at Cdziembowski@dtownctc.org or you can find me on Instagram @ctc_chrissie or on Facebook @CTCChrissie. Happy summer planning!