When summer vacations begin, Sobia Nisar tries to let her six-year-old daughter enjoy the first few weeks without too much structure. There are visits to cousins, occasional trips to the park, time at home, and an effort to keep screen time as low as possible.

But keeping a child busy through a long summer in the city is not easy. The heat limits outdoor play, parents cannot take children out every day, and after a few weeks, the same question returns: what will the child do for the rest of the break?

For Sobia, like many parents, the second month of vacation is when the expenses begin to add up. Her daughter’s school continues to charge the full fee for June and July, with no concession for the summer break. The June and July fees, she says, are collected in advance along with earlier months, making April and May heavier for parents. Then comes the separate summer camp.

“There is no concession in school fees during summer vacations,” she said. “The school takes the same fee as regular months, and then if they offer a summer camp, that is charged separately.”

The school’s summer camp runs for 15 days in July, three hours a day, and costs Rs25,000. That is in addition to the regular school fee. In June, Sobia says, keeping her daughter busy through outings and different activities costs around Rs30,000. In July, the camp costs Rs25,000, while tuition adds another Rs10,000.

For children, summer vacation is supposed to be a break. For parents, it is becoming another bill to plan around.

Paying twice

Across major cities, a growing economy has formed around the long summer break. Summer camps now offer swimming, skating, karate, judo, football, futsal, netball, arts and crafts, coding, robotics, public speaking, Quran classes, music, indoor games and tuition. Some are run by schools, some by clubs, some by activity centres, and some by private organisers renting facilities for the season.

The idea is attractive. Children remain active, learn something new, meet other children and stay away from screens for at least a few hours a day. But the cost also means that these options are not available equally to everyone.

The sharpest complaint from parents is that schools continue to collect regular fees for June and July, and then charge separately for summer programmes. For parents already managing school fees, transport, food, utility bills and household expenses, the additional camp fee feels like paying twice for the same institution.

“If they are taking fees for the whole two months, they should at least offer a 15-day summer camp for enrolled students as part of that fee,” said Sobia. “But they charge separately and say they have to arrange trainers and activities apart from regular school.”

Parents say school-run camps are not always cheaper than private camps, and regular students do not necessarily receive a discount. The camp may be optional, but for families trying to keep children active, away from screens and connected with their classmates, it begins to feel like another expense they are expected to manage.

For some parents, school is still the preferred option because it feels safer than sending a child to a new place with unfamiliar instructors. But that only adds to the frustration: the place they already trust is also asking them to pay again.

Schools contacted for this story declined to comment on why summer programmes are charged separately from regular vacation-month fees.

Working parents and screen-time pressure

For working parents, the challenge is not only the cost of summer activities. It is also the logistics of managing a child’s day when both parents are at work.

Usman Baig and his wife both work, and for them, summer camp is not just about learning a new sport or skill. It is also about keeping their child engaged, active and away from spending the whole day in front of a screen.

“It is not only about learning,” Baig said. “We also want to keep them engaged so they do not spend the whole day watching TV, using mobile phones or playing games.”

But enrolling a child in a camp is not always simple. Many camps offer morning or evening slots, but both can clash with office routines. Drop-off and pick-up become another task to manage during the workday. In Baig’s case, the timings made it difficult to enrol his child in a regular summer camp, so the family has tried to keep her busy through weekend activities such as swimming and judo.

“The biggest concern is safety and timing, then cost and transport,” he said. “We need to send our child somewhere reliable, but the pick-and-drop becomes difficult when both parents are working.”

This is where summer vacation becomes especially hard for urban families. During the school year, children have a routine. They wake up, go to school, come back, do homework, play and sleep. During summer break, the routine disappears. For the first few days, that freedom feels exciting. After that, parents say, children get restless.

Baig says when children stay home for too long without any activity, their frustration becomes visible. “At the start of summer vacation, they enjoy staying home. But after a few days, you can see they are getting frustrated. They want to go out, play and do something different, so parents have to find a mix of activities instead of letting screens take over,” he said.

The class divide

But for many families, even that choice is limited.

For families with tighter budgets, the question is not only whether a summer camp is useful, but whether it is affordable and safe.

Farzana Ahmed, a lower-middle-income parent of two children aged 10 and 12, said she searched for summer camps but found most of them too expensive. The cheaper options, she said, were either in areas where she did not feel safe sending her children, or did not have facilities she trusted.

“You either compromise on the quality of the summer camp or pay more for a better facility,” she said. “As parents, we feel they miss out on exposure and skills, but what can we do if we cannot afford it?”

Instead, her children spend the summer through a mix of parks, home activities, playing with neighbours and, when possible, short family trips. If a full summer camp is too expensive, she said, parents sometimes choose one activity, such as swimming, because it costs less than enrolling a child in a complete programme.

The difference is not only in how the summer is spent, but in the kind of exposure children receive. Those who attend camps get access to sports, arts, supervised activities and peer interaction. Those who cannot rely more on whatever is available at home, in the street, in nearby parks or within the extended family.

For Farzana, the solution is not to remove summer activities, but to make them more accessible. “If schools can include summer activities in the fees we have already paid for June-July, or if the government offers cheaper summer camps, more children would be able to attend,” she said.

Behind the camp fee

Camp organisers acknowledge that the market they serve is not open to every family.

Raheel Hussain, a summer camp organiser, said his programme includes activities such as swimming, karate, judo, football, futsal, netball, table tennis and skating. For younger children, he said, swimming and martial arts are among the most popular because they keep them active and engaged.

“Parents are more inclined now towards keeping their children active in different activities, especially sports,” he said. “Swimming, karate, judo and football are usually the most popular because they keep younger children engaged.”

His two-month camp for June and July costs Rs40,000. A shorter 15-day camp for children aged six to 10 costs Rs20,000. Transport and food are not included. Parents are expected to handle pick-and-drop, while children either bring food from home or buy it from a tuck shop.

“It is mostly middle-class and upper-middle-class families because the cost is not something every parent can afford,” Hussain said. “We understand this, but instructors, facility rent and electricity have become expensive, so prices have to stay high.”

According to him, demand has increased in recent years as parents have become more conscious about keeping children physically active during the summer. But the cost of running camps has also gone up. Many organisers rent clubs or facilities for the season, while trainer fees and electricity costs all affect the final price.

This creates a difficult cycle. Parents feel summer camps are expensive, while organisers say they cannot make them much cheaper because their own costs have increased. Schools continue charging regular fees. Children remain at home for long stretches. And parents are left trying to manage boredom, heat, screens and expenses at the same time.

What children actually need

Educationists say the answer is not always another paid activity. Misaal Rehman, a child psychologist and early-years educationist working with families in Pakistan said parents are under pressure from all sides during the summer. Heat, inflation, screen-time guilt and the marketing of expensive camps that promise to teach children everything from coding to confidence.

But children, she said, do not need every hour of the break to be planned. “What children actually need is rhythm, not structure,” she said.

After a demanding school year of classes, homework and tuitions, children also need time to rest, play freely and be bored. For many parents, boredom feels like a problem that must be fixed immediately. “But developmentally, boredom can help children become more imaginative, more independent and better able to regulate themselves. Boredom is a psychological necessity and the birth of creativity,” she said.

This does not mean children should be left alone for two months with nothing to do. It means the day does not need to become another school term. Regular sleep and meals, some physical activity, family interaction, reading, chores, board games and unstructured play can also give children what they need.

Missal also pushed back against the idea that expensive camps are essential for development. “Children can build fine motor skills by helping in the kitchen, learn cooperation through board games, develop imagination by building forts with cushions, and socialise through cousins, neighbours and siblings,” she said.

“Developmental milestones cannot be purchased through a certificate,” she added. “They are built through real-life, everyday human experiences.”

Then there is the question of screens. During a Pakistani summer, with extreme heat, limited safe outdoor spaces and working parents, some screen time may be unavoidable. The concern, she said, is not only the number of minutes a child spends on a device, but what that screen time replaces. “If it replaces sleep, physical movement or face-to-face interaction, it becomes a problem. If it is guided, discussed and balanced with other activities, it can be managed more realistically,” she said.

Instead of absolute bans, she said, parents should work towards co-regulation: setting limits with children, agreeing on screen-time windows, keeping devices away during meals and bedtime, and using in-app parental controls where needed. “The goal is not to create another daily fight, but to teach children how to use technology safely and purposefully,” she added.

The cost of a break

For parents who can afford it, a summer camp can offer children a few hours of activity, discipline and social interaction. For those who cannot, the summer break often has to be managed through parks, cousins, neighbours, home activities and whatever space is available inside the house.

But in both cases, the pressure remains. Parents want their children to be safe, active and away from excessive screen time. They want them to learn something new, stay connected with other children and return to school without losing routine. Yet almost every option now comes with a cost, camp fees, tuition, transport, swimming classes, weekend activities, food, fuel or entry tickets.

That is what has turned summer vacation into its own small economy. Schools offer paid camps while regular fees continue. Activity centres sell short courses. Sports clubs fill the gap left by closed schools. Parents calculate what they can afford, what they can skip and what they can manage at home.

For children, summer is still supposed to mean freedom from the school timetable. For parents, it has become a season of choices: how much screen time to allow, which activity to pay for, which outing to delay, and how to keep a child busy without turning the break into another financial burden.