For working parents, summer camps are child care - but not the affordable kind [1]
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.
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