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

You do need childcare. They are too young

@anexcellentwoman . I agree, but if the pay and conditions were good enough, more people might be prepared to overlook the lack of flexibility - after all, being a doctor is an inflexible role but it's something many people are attracted to as a 'rewarding' job. Likewise teaching, but the rewards are less and less and staff are expected to put up with more and more shit.

@Sleepless1096
You write
If the cost of childcare is reduced/it is made more flexible and conditions/pay in these jobs are improved, then it may continue to be worthwhile for women to do them. If not, then key worker staff will be lost.'

Recent figures concerning teachers leaving the profession in 2022
'55% of staff have actively sought to change or leave their current jobs (58% senior leaders, 53% school teachers)'

A friend of mine is moaning about her Year 2 grandchild having four separate class teachers because her school cannot attract and appoint full time teachers. This is the future and the government has to examine why teachers are leaving. It is not just pay but lack of flexibility compared to other working roles.

WIBU to keep them at home while I work? They’re old enough to entertain themselves i’d just need to make their lunch and check they’re still alive.

Generally the easiest way to keep children of this age from bothering you is unlimited screen-time. And I wouldn't be happy putting a 6 and 9 year old in front of a screen for large chunks of the holiday... you'd be doing them a real disservice. Far better that they're in camps or clubs, spending time with other children doing sports and other activities, for at least some of the time. Maybe let them have one or two lazy days where you take a couple of hours in the middle to spend with them?

Have you checked with their schoolfriends' parents which camps they are doing? Your kids would probably hate the camps less if they knew some people there.

I'm a teacher and I rarely come across girls who want to train to work in a nursery or to train as a nurse or indeed many who look at teaching as a career. Many students now feel that if they are paying for university they want a well paid job with good career prospects. So many bright girls want to study law or accountancy or business management. And why not? The traditional nurturing roles such as nursing and teaching look a lot less attractive these days. particularly if these nurturing roles are not family friendly.

Yep. I would imagine they’ll be thinking…’if I’ve got to work 55/60 hour weeks which are pretty hard and stressful, I’d like to be properly remunerated for doing so’.

Women don't owe the government their labour out of the home.

If the cost of childcare is reduced/it is made more flexible and conditions/pay in these jobs are improved, then it may continue to be worthwhile for women to do them. If not, then key worker staff will be lost.

I know this will be a surprise to many, but not everyone has the desire to or enjoys working from home. Especially young people. Still doesn't make underpaid, under resourced careers like teaching and healthcare more appealing, but not everyone wants to fester away on teams.

I wonder how many teenagers think neh, I'm not going to train as a teacher or nurse as I'd quite like to work from home

Which is very unlikely to charge as ultimately-they need nurses in hospitals treating patients, and teachers in classrooms teaching.

She took the call with her gorgeous toddler sat on her knee.

I wonder if you are aware of how many "gorgeous" laws that breaks?

One of our directors took a work call whilst she had her granddaughter sitting on her knee. She was dismissed for gross misconduct. Because she was responsible for setting an example and implementing policy.

It doesn't matter whether your employer permits chldcare during working hours or not - working whilst actively caring for a child of that age simultaneously is a health and safety risk, and leaves the employer open to litigation and fines if anything happens to the employee or child.

And part of the 'shit conditions' is the lack of flexibility to work from home.

I imagine you have no desire to tell us where you do work because you know your organisation would not approve of you combining childcare and work from home. I am sure there are lots of parents who do this but don't particularly want to draw attention to the fact that they do it. Particularly if it making many people including politicians uneasy about the consequences of this.

People aren't training to be nurses or teachers because the pay and conditions are shit!

There is a lot of evidence in the BBC news report about Government concern that the trend for WFH on Fridays has led to significantly increased absenteeism amongst school kids. The BBC is simply reporting from a Parliamentary debate about this effect of parents being home on Fridays.
The other point I am making is that with the HUGE demand on MN for mothers to work from home and supervise their kids is having a significant effect on the number of women applying to be teachers and nurses or other key worker roles. Which is the point being made in the other MN thread about the prospect of more online learning from home as it gets harder and harder to recruit teachers.
The Government has to monitor the consequences of more and more parents seeing it as their right to work from home. The fact that they are discussing this in Parliament shows that they are aware of the knock on effects of this on education and recruitment of key workers.

Odd day here and there fine. 4/ 5 days a week, miserable for all concerned and I think you’d definitely need to explain to your work. Maybe your kids will be happily playing on an abacus together but mine would have either been glued to a device or involved in a wild game full of shouting and rows. I can’t really imagine even the best behaved 6 yr old enjoying this set up.

Agree that you need to find better holiday clubs. Mine hated most of them but loved coding clubs or ones where I knew their friends were going too.