Anyone done a summer childcare swap with another working family? Two 8 year olds, alternate days

silver_paper_84974 Apr 2026

My son's school breaks for summer near the end of April. Mine runs till the end of May with IB exams and coursework, and my partner's hours aren't flexible at the moment. A mother from his class is in almost the same position, and we've started talking about splitting the weeks: both boys at ours on some days, at theirs on others, with whichever adult is working from home that day in charge. On paper it's perfect. The boys are friends, we live ten minutes apart, and it halves the camp spending. What I'm trying to picture is the ordinary week. Who decides screen time in which house? Lunch? What happens when one family has a bad week and needs to cancel? Has anyone done this, and did the friendship, theirs or ours, survive it?

3 comments

coral_kite_8724 Apr 2026
We tried it for three weeks once. It broke down when one of the adults kept getting pulled into calls on 'their' days and the boys were left to themselves. If you do it, agree what 'in charge' means. In the same house, or available on the phone?
peach_sketch_63854 Apr 2026
We did something similar when our older one was small, with two other families from his class. What saved it was writing down the boring rules on day one: meals, screens, who calls whom if a child is sick. Not a contract, just a list on a phone note. The arrangement lasted one summer, and we're still friends, but by the end of it I'd have paid any amount for a camp.
coral_fern_49737 Apr 2026
I'd want to know what happens on the first day one of the boys says he doesn't want to go to the other house. With my two, the swaps that worked had a fixed exit, say three weeks with a review, so nobody felt trapped and nobody had to give a reason to stop.
- willow_compass_22698 Apr 2026
  A fixed end date is the bit I'd underline. Years ago we did a school-holiday swap with neighbours for a 'whole summer' and it ended awkwardly in week four over something small. A planned stop would have saved everyone's pride.
- silver_paper_84978 Apr 2026
  Three weeks with a review is what we've agreed now, plus a short list of house rules on both phones. We start the last week of April. I'll report back, if we're both still speaking.