Summer holidays should be longer

Who do you propose is going to look after the DC esp if they have severe disabilities and there is barely any childcare available. We just manage to muddle through with a bit of WFH, annual leave and unpaid parental leave. I wouldn't be able to work in that scenario and I know many other parents of disabled kids who just hang on to their jobs. 13 weeks would be a killer.

I’m in Cornwall in a large town and we don’t have any holiday clubs locally (we did before Covid but they never restarted afterwards)…

Like most families down here we don’t have a huge income and couldn’t afford what PP are quoting anyway.

I spent some time in Europe in the 00s - 10s and while they have longer summer holidays many of the families had a SAHP. And the school day was 8am - 4.30pm or longer throughout the rest of the year! (And fewer half terms!)

So it’s not quite fair to compare like for like but an interesting thread nonetheless

Nope, if anything there are too long as it is!

all well and good if there is a stay at home parent present but realistically these days both parents have to work. The cost of childcare is ridiculous.

so YABU, OP @noblegiraffe

Scotland dates are end of June till mid August so you could just align. They don’t t get the end of May half term.

So in summary people want longer summer holidays but also to make Christmas and half terms longer. And make schools a 4 day week. They want free or very cheap childcare for all of these holidays as they don’t have enough annual leave. Or they want the cost of living to be cheap enough to allow one stay at home parent (apparently this shouldn’t just be mothers though even though in most cases the mother is the one who WANTS to stay home) AND have people work a 4 day week. (No thought for how shops that need to be open 5-7 days a week like supermarkets and other retail and dentists and hair dressers etc would work).

So a 4 day school week with an extra week every half term and other break plus 13 weeks in summer with every family having one stay at home parent. No countries have that. Everyone here is just picking the best bits from each country but ignoring the other issues. EVERY country has issues. No country is perfect.

My home country has much longer summer holidays. I don’t know what it is currently, but as a child, I had off from early May to the last week of August. We didn’t have half terms during the year. Only the occasional inset day, 2 weeks off at Christmas and Easter.

Summer holiday clubs are ££££. Basic childcare with a babysitter/childminder may be cheaper, but my friends are all paying £1000 A WEEK for specialist clubs, like sports or drama. Most families can’t afford that. The ones who can can only afford it max 2 weeks per summer (£2000 per child and only 2 weeks covered).

My parents managed because my grandparents had me all summer and I sat in front of the tv for 8 hours a day. All well and good for those who have family help. Dh and I do everything ourselves. There’s no grandparents to provide childcare.

I think people who want longer holidays are SAHP who are probably clinging to still having a purpose and wanting to recreate those pre-school years of days out and play dates. Which is lovely and all. But most of us have to work, so it’s screens and junk food all day for lots of children, and not a whole lot of enrichment.

There are issues involving the exam diet if the holidays were shorter. Young people returning to school unaware if they've passed or failed their subject. Seems a waste.

I would love longer summer holidays but I am in the fortunate position that I can work early mornings / late evenings when the children are in bed. The disadvantage is it's exhausting and long, long days for me.

I also accept though that for some children / parents holidays must be unsettling / boring and stressful / financially challenging. There is no easy answer. Selfishly though I'd wish for more holidays in the summer.

My DC have 12 weeks summer holidays in both primary and secondary. I have always loved the long break (as do they!). Obviously more challenging & expensive when they were very young ( DH & I both work FT) but it’s just something we budgeted for. Funnily, I was more nervous about getting to the 11-14 age bracket where they would be getting too old for camps / child minder but too young to be left alone. However since Covid, DH & I can split our WFH days so we’re covered. Educational outcomes are very good here so I don’t necessarily agree with the argument that children will forget what they have learned if the break is too long. Having read the thread, I do understand the challenges other working parents have though and I accept we are lucky. It has helped hugely that DH & I are both in senior roles and with that comes a lot of flexibility.

I'm in ROI. My DC have been off for 4 weeks and are back on 5 weeks.

I get 28 days AL but only expect to take 7 days of this through the summer holidays. I take some time off at the other midterms.

We had an 8 day trip to London at beginning of July. For the rest of the holidays DC are with the childminder or at camps. I have 2 DC and the camp they are at this week (10am to 2pm) is €120. The childminder looks after them at our house and we live in the country so they get plenty of outside time.

By the time June comes around, both DC and me are exhausted and worn down by the school year and can't wait for the holidays to come around.

The 9 weeks fly by and nobody gets bored so for us it's great but we are in the fortunate position where we can afford the extra childcare and camps.

Edited to add:
My 11yo is in a class of 10 and I am the only mother there working full time.
My 6yo is in a class of 7 and I am the only mother working full time in that class as well.
This means they only have mornings or a couple of days a week that they need cover for in the summer.

In Australia, we get 20 leave days, unless you're in an emergency service or a teacher (obviously). Often almost half of leave days are gobbled up by Christmas closures as most businesses close for two weeks & force you to use your own leave for it. (My office apparently tried to change to a three week closure a few years & there was mutiny).

School holidays are a nightmare. Even worse if your DC are in private school (longer holidays) or have aged out of vacation care.

We have school hols 6 weeks mid Dec-Jan (summer) and 2 weeks each April, June/July, September.

There's a lot of begging for flexibility, WFH, using long service leave, unpaid leave, grandparent care & and fighting for expensive vacation care places.

I loved school holidays until I returned to work. Now my DC are juggled about & we have lower paying jobs because the company is reasonably accommodating.

To be fair yes, school holidays here seem miserably short. My best childhood memories are by far the 3 blessed, long awaited months of summer holidays.

Saying that, it’s very tricky for parents if they don’t have a support system.

Also I honestly don’t think kids here are under pressure in school. It’s quite easy and adaptable and you’d have to be exceptionally bad to be held back a year, for example.

So who do you suggest takes care of them for these extra weeks? The flower fairies? Holiday clubs are expensive as it is and not everyone has a handy granny who can step in.
I am lucky as DH is a teacher and handles all holiday childcare, often for our son's friends too. For some it is a nightmare.

Yeah and I think the thing is that as a teacher, the OP is purely seeing it from the perspective of her kids and her family.

She gets a professional salary but has to pay no childcare costs over the school holidays. Blissful! Doesn't have the financial pressure of losing a salary to be a SAHM but also doesn't have to worry about childcare. I have no doubt it would be wonderful for her and her kids

It would be fine for mine - more holiday clubs, but they do enjoy these, just a bit more expensive for us.

But I am capable of thinking outside my personal circumstances.. for poorer families and those without family support, it wouldn't be great at all. I spent my summer holidays being ditched with random family friends many of whom didn't want me around, weeks sat in the stockroom of my parents' business, it was miserable for me as it was, another two weeks would have been even worse. Lots of kids in that position.

That's why we need a compromise and I think 6 weeks is a fair one.

I love the 6 week holiday now dc are teens. It was definitely trickier when they were younger but you have to juggle and make sacrifices - comes with the territory of having dc. This week my dc are chilling, then room sorting and hanging out with friends, then family holiday then final week of freedom. Dh and I used to tag team and only have one well annual leave together over a year but now we can have 2 weeks together. Not sure they’d need longer but children in independent schools broke up a couple of weeks ago so maybe an extra week would be fine. Parents just need to expect to organise childcare and save up/plan for it.

And in Ireland secondary schools finish the end of May so almost 12 weeks off whilst state primary finish around the second/last week in June. I get 26 days holidays and I’m will be taking some parental leave.

Holidays throughout the year are shorter though.

How many holidays do Italy have in total? How many holidays do Ireland have?

Sorry but I can't afford all this childcare so no im happy with what we have!

i grew up in Ireland and had 2 months off in primary - i was sent on a LOT of summer camps for weeks and weeks so it wasn't exactly me just relaxing at home haha

we don't get the may mid term break either that we get over here. So really its only a week longer overall

I used to have an office job in Germany (long time ago). I worked for a large well known international company. I used to get 6 weeks annual leave plus days off in lieu of overtime. I think that was 1 day a month in lieu of overtime, so that brought my annual leave to 8 week and 2 days . There are also more bank holidays in Germany. Many people I worked with would take 4 weeks off at this time of year. I also used to go home at 1pm on Fridays but I did do overtime Monday to Thursday.

Northern Ireland has all of July and August off as well. Doesn't seem to harm their results.

The whole school system and the time off is so outdated and frustrating for working parents (as is the length of the school day). I would not enjoy longer summer holidays - 6 weeks is plenty - but I appreciate others feel differently.

Im dreading the spread of the two week October half term - we don’t have that (yet). Who wants to take two weeks off in the wet dark months? Move it May if anything when it’s nicer at least (yes I know, exams - but no pain no gain and once done people would get used to it)

Personally, I would want to fundamentally reset house pricing, so that families do not normally need two full-time incomes to afford a mortgage. I don’t think endless summer clubs and camps are ideal, and I don’t think more time in formal education is great, either. More family time, without huge financial pressure, would be ideal.