Dark times approach: Spring break is awful for Arizona parents

Many of us parents are smack dab in the middle of our kid’s spring break or getting ready for it.

Let’s face it: This is a terrible time for parents.

Spring break is a week of juggling work schedules, finding day care, PAYING for daycare, burning hard-earned vacation days and finding things for the rugrats to do so they stay busy and out of our hair.

Things would be more manageable if they were the way they used to be. Remember when we had two major breaks from school, spring break and summer vacation?

Today, we have spring break, winter break, teacher’s in-service days, weekly early release days and summer vacation. Heck, at my kid’s school, every three-day weekend is turned into a four-day weekend because the kids get the preceding Friday off!

Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t get six weeks of paid vacation each year to handle all of these days off!

I will say that I am one of the lucky ones because my wife works from home and she can manage a lot of this, but what about the households that have both parents working or, even worse, a working single parent?

Speaking of work, let’s talk lost production. There are offices across the Valley that will be peppered with empty cubicles and offices for the next few weeks. These breaks impact our economy.

So what do we do? Let’s start with ditching the notion that spring break is a tradition we must continue. How about picking one — yes one — week-long break? winter or spring.

Finally, the coup de gras: Let’s start talking like adults and ask each other if our kids need two and a half months off during the summer to help with the harvest! Unless you live out in west Buckeye, I think you know the answer.

In my opinion, we can take a good, hard look at how much time our kids spend away from the classroom or stop complaining about being 47th in the nation for education.

Follow @GOMikeRussell