A question of time
Op-ed: Plan to cut summer vacation will give our kids less uptight parents, who are happier to spend time with them
At the first opportunity I get, I will invite the education minister to lunch. I have been wanting to do that for a while, but I just couldn't find the time. Between two months of my daughters' summer vacation, the High Holidays month, the week of Hanukkah
and the week of Passover,
when I have three weeks of annual leave myself, when will we manage? And with the prices of summer camps, we don't really have enough money left for products to cook a serious meal.
A wise woman once asked: If we love our children so much, why do we want them to go sleep already? The answer is that it happens because we don't have time.
Summer School
Shahar Chai
Grade 1, 2 students will keep learning for three additional weeks starting July. Cost is 400 NIS, parents from lowest socio-economic rankings won't pay. Education minister: This is a revolution, not a babysitter
Because our parents' working hours were 8:30 am to 3 pm, 4 pm if they really put in hours, and most mothers were already home in the afternoon. We are expected to work from 9 am to 7 pm, and in high-tech – even till 11 pm.
What's in it for us? Nothing. The salaries, compared to the cost of living, have only eroded.
And what hasn't changed? Our children's holidays. Even if we spent every minute of the vacation with them, it won't be enough.
Our life is an endless race in search for someone to watch them while we're at work. And every vacation there are those who take advantage of our distress to charge hundreds of shekels per day for babysitting.
Another disaster is the scheduling of the summer vacation. In chilly Europe it makes sense to go on vacation on July and August, because that's the only time there is no rain and snow. Here the heat is unbearable, but there's no way the vacation will be moved to the pleasant September and October. So we are trapped with them at home or in shopping malls.
The new law to cut the summer vacation is a good one, a social one.
Poor people will pay a little, and even in the strong cities – which as you know, are not strong because there is no middle class here – it's a decent sum. The children will earn interesting activities, and will also earn us, their parents – slightly less uptight, slightly happier to spend time with them.
