Christmas leave priority

What benefits in the workplace do non parents get? I’d say it’s the other way around really, parents get mat leave/pat leave, a huge amount of parental leave in the UK, more likely to get a FWA approved and so on.

Loved children who occasionally have to celebrate on a different day are still very privileged and lucky to have adults who make the day special for them. It’s not unkind to have them celebrate on a day other than the 25th Dec.

So a grandparent of a 7 year old takes priority over a parent with an 8 year old? Why 7? Bonkers.

OP, is everyone where you work breaking up on the 24th and going back on the 29th, like you, as standard?

Because if so perhaps people on here need to be dial it down about them "missing their magical christmas with their kids" and all that jazz.

If they are all working the same days as OP, no one is actually "missing" anything.

That's a really good idea! You and your family could timeshift Christmas Day to Boxing Day and have a lovely, relaxed time together before heading back later on the 27th.

Why do you need to be there until 5? My local council offices usually close around noon or 1pm (or even on 23rd) and my local library closes at 1. I bet the household tips close at 1, as well. That said, I still wouldn't want to have to drive up after 1 as it gets dark so early, when I visit my mum we're gone by 10.

Yes they would! This is unbelievably naive. How old are these kids you are envisaging? Anything over about four and this wouldn't work.

Where I worked the majority were on shift work including nights .
The office used to try to give parents Christmas off and those without NY . They also allowed people to swap with each other if that didn't suit .

Yes absolutely unfair and discriminatory. In my team we collate everyone’s requests and then if there aren’t enough people willing to work it we ask voluntarily for people to give up a day or two’s leave. Never had a situation where we had to enforce it but if we did we’d look at last year’s allocation and go from that.

One of my ex employers had a rule of no holidays at all over christmas for anyone.

Cant help but feel this is probably the easiest way.

It's not about the parents, it's about the children.

This is what I mean. Child free are often desperate to pitch this as a battle against parents when in reality it's about a third group. Children. You were a child once. You wouldn't want every kindness or priority that was extended to you to be begrudged by others because they thought your parents were getting an advantage.

It should be first come, first serve or rotated so if someone worked last year, they don't work this year.

Parents/Grandparents shouldn't get priority. Christmas is for everyone, not just children.

I say this with DC under 7 myself.

We are asked our preference between Xmas/NY & management use those preferences to try & compile a fair rota.

To be honest this is the only fair way to do it, which is to see what everyone wants first, then consider everyone personal circumstances and why they need the time off, it's the least management can do, rather than the lazy bullshit OPs management have come up with.

Automatically allocating time off to grandparents, who may not even see their grandkids on their allocated days off but use it to bugger off on holiday instead is just insulting to people without kids.

But you aren't being forced to get up at 6am on Christmas morning, you could travel after work on Christmas Eve, you finish at 5pm so would be there before midnight and have the whole of Christmas day with your family - traveling without children is so much easier and quicker than trying to do the same journey with a couple of small kids in tow.

They absolutely do unless they are very young. Children don't exist in a vacuum. They mix with other kids and wider society. If you go to a Christingle service for example or watch any TV it's very obvious. Other children will let them know how many days away it is. Most have advent calendars.

It feels a bit late to be deciding the Christmas holidays, is this a recent announcement? Every place I have worked you have had to book Christmas almost a year in advance.

giving priority to a grand parent over a parent is odd but parents first is not so odd. Non parents get plenty of benefits that parents don’t have that’s just life.

I do have children snd dont agree with you i also had to work several xmas days when they were little .

Your logic is all kinds of flawed, why would an IVF baby need more Christmases with their parents than a child conceived naturally, weirdest thing I’ve read in a while and I have an IVF baby! It’s not about the children it’s about fair policies in a workplace where parents and non parents are being paid to do a job. The Christmas experience of their children is or should be completely irrelevant to the discussion. if your parents work a job that means they will miss some Christmases then that’s just tough luck really, harsh as it sounds.

My kids are young adults now. They adore Xmas and speak nostalgically about years gone by. The fact I had to work some Xmas days in the NHS has not affected them. Because we parented them in a way that made it special anyway.

Some parents need to get a grip; the saccharine obsession with some of this stuff feels so claustrophobic to me. They are usually the ones who bang on about their special nuclear family too. There is a bigger world out there and kids won’t be harmed by not having their parent there for the odd Christmas.

Okay, what do new joiners do? When do they start the rotation? Same pattern as the person they replace? What if it's a new role?

But that doesn't have to be on Christmas morning or even Christmas Day. I don't live near my family now so see them a few days after or before Christmas. It still is a family Christmas that I savour and enjoy.