Parents, how do you manage summer breaks, who takes care of your children when there is no school?

Grandparents! They signed up for this when they had kids, or at least it's common practice where I live.

WFH, summer kid camps that did free or cheap activities during the day, friends who also had kids (returning the favor another day), relatives (mine were extremely unreliable), and all else fails paid child care.

My relatives were absolutely useless for childcare. Its fine if you don't want to look after your own grand children, just say so. But under no circumstances repeatedly say you will have the grand children then back out on the last day, many many times.

On the one hand, I'm lucky that my wife works at a daycare that runs day camps for children up to 8 (my daughter is 5), but we still don't like that she spends the entire summer with strict schedules and things like that, so that for 15 days she goes with my in-laws and 15 with my parents, in both cases they are retirees in very good physical health and eager to play with their grandchildren.

barely.

I'm going to assume you are asking because, you are too busy at work like most parents. Luckily the state and town I live in provide (our tax dollars) summertime activities.

Absent this kind of program I would look to an urban league, ymca, or mutual aid program for child care depending on the age of the kids. I encourage you to look for programs like these if you're in a tight spot for childcare.

When they were younger, my wife and I basically had to work different shifts, although there were also long stretches where I just worked less(because I had found ways to make good money like so). Once they turned 6 years old, Boys & Girls Club was a lifesaver. During the summer, the kids actually prefered to go there on days we didn't have anything fun planned(nor $$$ for activities).

My wife has it figured out this year - she was laid off 2 weeks before her 20 year anniversary.

I don't really get the question. How do we "manage" it? In what way, what aspect(s)?

In my town, most of the summer camps fill up in March. Every dual-income family I know has a spreadsheet and keeps track of exactly when online registration opens. It’s a nightmare, and expensive too.

Mine are starting to get old enough that we are doing a mix of camps and WFH weeks. It’s not ideal but we’ve scraped enough together that it mostly works.

Dont you have a kindergarten?

Ugh... My very tiny wallet took care of it when my kid was younger, in the form of daycare payments. Summer was hella expensive for me back then.

Either bring along a nanny or go to places that have nanny care available.