What do you ft parents do in the 6 weeks holidays?

[Toughtips]

I started a ft job recently. Get 23 days holiday.

DH works ft too.

How do you work it?

We used to get a summer au pair which could work if you have a spare room.

it's like a military planned exercise to be honest!

Grandparents 2 days a week (very lucky to have this), I take a a few days plus a full week off ... mid week to mid week as this works out cheaper when combined with GPS, various sports clubs for rest.... forest school, cricket, football and normal long day out of school club. For sports have to work with other parents for drop off/pick up as limited hours. ......

it's an expensive time of Year!
what makes it hard is clubs cancel days just before hols start as not enough uptake!

Two weeks family holiday, four weeks holiday club in the summer. Ds loves it, he gets to run round with his little “tribe”.
Xmas, home with me
Easter, holiday club
Half terms, we share between us.

I usually do 2 weeks, my dp 2 weeks my mum 1 week and my sister 1 week. We’re lucky in that we get 30 days plus bank holidays so between us that covers most of the school holidays, the rest is covered by me working from home or the use of a club of some sort.

I'm a single parent. A combination of annual leave, kids clubs and grandparents. A military operation, but always worked out

We can sometimes have 8 weeks in Scotland but it's usually 7. No grandparents so we used holiday club for 5 or 6 weeks and a two week family holiday. I was sometimes able to juggle my hours so that I could pick them up at lunch. Other holidays we usually juggled but they'd go to holiday club for a week at Easter and other times we couldn't manage. Mine are older teens now so been much easier. I always felt guilty but they enjoyed it they tell me.

Three/4 weeks holiday club
My mum sometimes has DD for a week
I take a week off
DH takes a week off

It's a pain and expensive but what else can you do

We each had a week off with dc and then it was holiday club. We also took a two week holiday as a family together and had the joy of paying over inflated prices. We never had any free childcare to enable us to work.

We did have a babysitting swap arrangement with two other couples so we could go out in the evening.

Childminder for 3 weeks, then we cover the 2 weeks by grandparents, my day off and 1 day annual leave each and then 1 week off together

I have used unpaid parental leave before but this year we're using the school holiday club for 3-4 weeks, family holiday, and a few days each at either end to mop up the odd day.

It feels pretty chaotic in our house.

We go on holiday all together for a week or so.

The rest of the time is a mixture of either me or their dad taking time off work to look after them, holiday clubs or help from my mum or sister.

My sister has a school-aged child too, so we tend to share the childcare.

I work part time. I buy three extra weeks of leave a year so that I get 8 weeks. I took 3 weeks off in the summer and then my husband covered one week and then we used holiday clubs for the other. My husband gets 6 weeks and he takes four of them at the same time as me so we can go away.

We did a spreadsheet too. Same as others, using our a/l separately for the most part as well as holiday clubs.

One week of sending them to stay with family.

Also I did childcare swaps with friends, so I would take a friend's dc while they were at work then they would have mine when I went to work.

I also work overtime at weekends etc to build up time in lieu to use when they are sick or in the holidays.

Combination of GP when alive and temporary nanny .