To think I can WFH 9-5 in the holidays with my kids at home

Mine are 8 and 10 and it works fine for them. I take a bit of annual leave, my husband takes a bit and the other days he WFH with them.
They love it. Usually mix up playing in the garden, doing a bit of their school work or reading to break up the day and then tv/consoles as well.

Mine are quite independent though and also enjoy each others company so that makes it a lot easier.

For a couple of days I think it’s manageable although your employer may need to know. Mine wouldn’t be that fussed. When you know you have a meeting, prepare beforehand make sure the kids know you’re going into a meeting and mustn’t be disturbed unless an emergency. Give them a drink, snack and an activity to keep them quiet for an hour.

How irresponsible! If I were your employer I would insist that you are either full-time in the office, or you look for another job. When you are working, the job needs to have 100% of your attention - which won't happen with kids in the house. Just sort out proper childcare, like everyone else does.

I think it's doable from work perspective. 6 is on the younger side to entertain themselves for so long and two of them would be bored. I would try to organise them to be away from the house half of your work days. Friends, family, club.

Where I live the local private schools often did an excellent holiday club
you could drop of between 8 -10 and collect from 4 -6. During these times it was just chilling watching some tv reading and breakfast / light snacks
10 am sharp the holiday club would start and
they used the schools private sports facilities so my DS did loads of stuff he wouldn’t normally do
you could pay extra for them to do awards like swimming badges

this was a long time ago but it wasn’t that expensive 25 a day so relative cost for that time

i hate it if I ring a business and they and they keep getting interrupted by kids
although 1 did have his dog barking in the background 😂

Exactly
You are paid to work.
If you worked in an office you would have childcare and travel expenses.
I've managed people like you and NO it doesn't always work out that you only need to get children their lunch.

I think it’s fine for a day here and there, maybe one day a week? My kids are 9 and 11 and the most we wfh without childcare is 2 days a week. They are mostly on devices so too often isn’t good. I do try to take them out for a couple of hours which I can do around work. Kids like having time at home to chill. It can feel like a waste of annual leave if they’re good at entertaining themselves!

There’s no way I could do this with my 6 year old. She still needs a fair amount of attention. She’d also be really grumpy if she was stuck in the house all day, she needs to burn off energy. A 9 year old would be different, but they’d still be better off at a club. Try some different holiday clubs, they’ll find one they like in the end.

For a couple of days in the hols that sounds fine to me. They are safe and fed and can play with each other. I started doing this on occasion but only since DC turned 9. before that he wasn't self sufficient enough to not need eyes on him and I wouldn't therefore have been able to work properly. You'll know yourself if it is workable.

I do it for odd days here and there, but for a full week or two or holidays that's too much.

YABU on the grounds that on the days you are "W"FH, you'd be a poor employee and a poor parent.

I would look into local colleges that have childcare courses. So many will love to earn some extra cash looking after them and can take them to the park etc.

So if for example you did 6-8am. Had childcare 10-2pm (and worked) and then worked 6-8pm that's your wok day.

You could even propose you work 4-8pm and do a condensed week of your boss agrees it.

I think really though the answer is what will your boss know? Will having them home affect your work - eg teams meetings. Are your work hours set as in you need to sign in and out over a certain 8 hour period minus your lunch break (I know you said they are flexible but in what way?)

I work set hours a week and have flexibility in being able to leave early occasionally and work longer days other days. And I work in a school so I'm onsite for my work.

You know your children and your job. It really depends on whether you can work effectively, if not it might get very stressful for you. If your children are fairly self sufficient I think it's good for them to entertain themselves. This thing of having to be constantly supervised and entertained by adults is new - it's normal for children to be at home doing their thing while mum does the cleaning, cooking, gardening, looks after a baby, etc. This is no different really. As long as screen time is kept at a reasonable level and the children get along it's fine. They can read books, play in the garden, do some drawing, colouring, activity books, you could put up a tent for them to play in, a few garden toys like swing ball or croquet. For maybe 2 days a week it could be a good solution, then maybe arrange some reciprocal childcare with their friends parents or resort to the occasional holiday club

I think it's very unprofessional and it also depends on the industry you work in and the nature of your role. As others say it is very demoralising for other staff who have clearly made proper childcare arrangements. I work in retail and many of our Head Office support staff work from home these days and it is a nightmare trying to get hold of them, get a response or any other form of support ... I guess they may all be totally flakey and unhelpful but there is a noticeable difference between the support we got before WFH became the norm and since. And having to have training sessions on a Computer in a busy shop when the 'trainers' are working from their comfortable homes with children, pets etc clearly in view is not very motivating. And don't get me started on the 'here's baby Betsy, she just wants to say hello before the session starts' .
There was a thread on here recently (since deleted) about a recruiter who WFH and assumed she could care for her baby at the same time ... imagine being that person looking for a job and knowing that the recruiter is not giving you their full attention. (Or for the employer 'paying' for the service').

Can’t you book half days off, this way you won’t use as much of your leave allowance and you can spend time with the kids in the school holidays.

So long as they don't need any attention you will be fine.

There is a difference between an hour or so a day (which could apply with the holiday clubs) or when a child is unable to go to school through illness, and what you were originally proposing OP.

The suggestions that involve a couple of days leave seem appropriate.

If you can get DH to cover a couple of days and you can use some annual leave too, I actually think it will probably be perfectly manageable - especially if you can split the days so that they're not with you while work for more than two days in a row.

You say they're happy to mostly play in their rooms all day and if you organise lunchboxes with their daily allowance of snacks, I'm sure they'll be fine.

It may not be ideal but neither is making children miserable by sending them to holiday clubs all day.

You're being unreasonable.

That is not adequate care and stimulation for your children, and it's certainly not the full time commitment your employer hired and pays you for.

A couple of days a week max if you’re prepared to catch up in the evenings as it’s really not fair on your employer or colleagues to do the bare minimum during holidays. This is becoming a real problem in my workplace, and we have discovered staff working at home with babies under 1yr old. They weren’t even bothered when we found out and thought they’d done nothing wrong as can’t afford childcare. Maybe harsh but that’s not the employers fault and we are taking this down a HR route. We don’t mind an odd occasion with kids over school age but no 6-9yrs old want to sit infront the TV or tablet for 6wks solid

I reckon the 9yo would be fine with this for a few days but not the 6yo. 9yo could have a sensible pre- approved friend over perhaps. Two kids that age can be easier than 1

i don't know about 'needing you so much' at six. I was out of the house all day every day and my parents had to wrangle me back in for lunch.

and I was born in the very late 90s, not the seventies.

if you have a garden and the weather is nice I'd make a couple of sandwiches and set up a lunch box, maybe a colouring box full of paper and pencils (to mix it up) and just leave them to it

At ages 6 and 9 they should be fine. Lots of us did it during COVID with much younger kids (and now again during teacher strikes).

Even if they spend most of the day on screens it won’t hurt them; you could pop out every hour or so and get them doing some non-screen tasks to break the day up. They will probably love it.

My DS would t have been fine at 6 years old but at 9 he would have been. Depends on how needy the 6 year old is. One day I would say fine but not the whole week - they will get bored.

I would do this occasionally. After all - we did it for 5 months while simultaneously home schooling, with younger kids than that, are were expected to deliver as usual at work with no real allowances. So the odd day won't hurt anyone.

I try not to do it two days in a row, and would get out for a walk at lunch. I more often split a day or two of leave across the week, so I'm working 4.5 hour in the morning with them at home, then get out in the afternoon.

It's £250 per child per week, and a 30 mile drive for holiday clubs here.