How I Survived My Summer Vacation: Family Edition
5 min Data Dive with Activity
Back to school season is upon us. And with it, come even more questions and constantly shifting answers. Looking back over the past few months, we wanted to find some answers about how families have been spending their summer.
Digging into the data from Navigating to a New Normal, our on-going quantitative and qualitative research study, we found that families tend to worry more about contracting Covid-19, but also took the time to engage in travel and outdoor activities.
On a personal level, parents are harder hit by the overall effects of the pandemic.
For those parents who live with children 24/7, 41% report they have experienced a serious/severe personal impact. For non-parents, 30% report a serious and severe impact. (July 1st to August 12th)
If mom and dad get sick, will the house crumble?
While concern of contracting COVID-19 is generally high, parents have consistently been more worried about falling ill compared to those who are not parents. Similarly, parents are slightly more concerned about others in the family falling ill. Given their responsibilities for others, their worries are not misplaced. Falling ill runs the risk of not being able to provide for their families.
Parents are more inclined to engage in activities
Kids don’t sit still, which means parents can’t either. When asked which activities they were planning to engage in soon, parents outpaced the total and people without kids, reflecting the need to keep the kids entertained and the house running in this shutdown society.
July 1st to August 10th, N=7500, “Soon” indicates within the next three months.
Speaking of activities…
In addition to the survey questions, we invited our qual participants to do a short interview with their kids about the highlights of summer. We’ve shared it below so you can capture your own kids’ thoughts about summer 2020.
ACTIVITY
What is your all-time, favorite, perfect summer day? Draw, write or make a collage that tells us the story of that perfect summer day. What are you doing? Who is with you or are you by yourself? How do you feel? What foods would you eat? What clothes would you wear? Be creative and have fun – it’s your perfect summer day!
If you are drawing or making a collage – please fill the page as much as you can with images and words. Tell the story! If you are writing something, please make sure you are telling the story, like you are writing directions for a movie.
FOLLOW-UP QUESTIONS TO ASK
Tell me about what you drew/collaged/wrote for your “perfect summer day”?
What’s the one thing that makes that day so special?
Think of a normal summer. Now pick 3 words to describe summer. What are they? Why did you choose those?
In a normal summer, what are your 3 absolute favorite activities? What do you like about those?
What was your single most favorite memory about last summer (2019)?
What makes that memory your favorite?
What are you doing during a typical day this summer (2020)?
Thinking back over what you’ve done this summer, what’s been your most favorite moment?
We’ll have another summer family update for you next week. In the meantime, how has your family been spending summer? Have you hosted a party or taken a driving trip? We’d love to know how it went.
And in case you missed them, check out these summer reads from our blog: