Holiday care for older children

[RetroFair]

What do people do for holiday care for older children say 11-14? DH and I both work and our DTD's are currently at primary school and we manage the school holidays through a mixture of taking annual leave separately and holiday clubs. What happens though when they hit secondary school, are too old for holiday clubs but far too young to be left at home. We've got a few years yet but it's already worrying me!

Are 11-14 year olds really too young to be left at home? I can understand not wanting to leave them for a full 8 hour day every day for 6 weeks but I imagine by that age you'll cobble things together- perhaps they'll go to granny's or a friend's house after lunch or you and DH will have a few half days off from work.

What sweetheart said. I also let him stay up later so he sleeps in a bit and try to pop home at lunchtime.

The thing is DH and I both have long commutes so would need to be out the house 7.30am to 6pm, with no grandparents close by and a limited local support network. I'm sure by the time we reach this point it will work itself out nut it just niggles away in the background.

DS is 12 - he has a week at PGL, 2 weeks off with us, a couple of weeks at watersports club (9-4, but he cycles there and back), and a week of something else depending on what is on locally - tennis, cricket etc.
I wouldn't leave him on his own all day, but he's fine to have a couple of hours either side of something

Why would they be too young to be at home?

@MyDcAreMarvel I think 10.5 hours is a long time to leave an 11 year old. There's another thread on here at the moment where people are saying they'd only leave an 11 year old for a mag of 1.5 hours. I don't think I'd be happy leaving them on their own for a whole day.

Our local leisure centre runs clubs for older kids 10am-3pm so as long as they can get themselves there and back that's not too long left alone at either end of the day.

From secondary school, most are left alone.
Hence why you don’t tend to get holiday clubs etc
You could try a childminder ?

Holiday clubs, working from home, mutual arrangements with others, sharing with your dh. I can understand your reluctance to leave an 11 year old alone for 10 hours, but 5 hours should be ok, so you're only looking at half a days cover at a time.

Once they're 12 or 13 they'll be asleep till noon anyway...

At the 8-13 Yr age range we had summer au pairs.
We arw rural and needed someone to taxi them to and from activities and friends.
I have five Yr age gap so 8 Yr old needed looking after and 13"yr old needed taxi!!!
We always got aussie au pairs on uni breaks so a bit older, no language issues.
Some where on gap Yr and needed a few weeks money and liked a six week stop in Nice House with good food etc.
We are still in touch with one yrs later.
And at about £100 quid a week it was cheaper than kids clubs

I do similar to Titchy, mixture of holiday club/ working from home/ going to stay with friends/ and DH and I taking leave (separately) to look after them. My in laws also have them for a week in the summer.

My ds (12) will do 2 weeks at a pgl equivalent, one week orchestra camp, one week cricket camp and I’ll do some wfh when he can just mooch. I commute too, and agree that 10 hours (even 5 hours tbh) is long for a pre-teen to be alone

My older DS (15) has no common sense whatsoever and was only just allowed to stay home during the holidays last summer at 14. I only work half an hour journey from home.
My 12 year old is much more sensible and I would happily leave him home alone during the holidays but so far haven’t been able to leave them together as they fight and argue constantly. I have my fingers crossed that we can do it this summer.
We found a few clubs that will take older children. England Sports Group for example take up to 15 if you need it

I think it’s really tricky in that 11 to 14 age bracket, because you don’t really want to leave them alone for the whole day. It’s fine if you have a support network and grandma or someone can pop in at lunchtime, etc.

My DD (when, maybe, 7 or 8) used to go to a holiday club that took them up to age 14 (could choose multi sport, football, arts and crafts or drama). There weren't many older children there, but a few so maybe worth checking the clubs in your area. The one DD went to only ran from 10 - 4 though, so you would need to check timings if your DTs aren't/won't be capable of getting there and back by themselves.

DD also did a week at tennis club, which took them up to age 16. There were a few older ones there, but they were all very keen tennis players and wanted to be there to practise.

Could you ask a friend to have them for a day, then you look after the friend's DC on your day off? I think it is easier to have older ones round for the day, as they don't need as much supervision.

Would work let you, or DH, do reduced hours during the holidays, so that if they were left home alone, it wouldn't be for as long?

Their school premises (secondary) might be used as the venue for clubs during the holidays. My DD did a couple of weeks of netball at her school, and I know they offered hockey too. Again, would need to get there and back by themselves.

Churches round where I live seem to offer days for teens to go there and hang out. Never used it, but might be worth having a look if your family are church goers.

Mine were happy to carry on with odd days at holiday clubs till they were 12 and 14, then progressed to occasional 10-3 sports/drama camps that they could walk to either alone or with a friend, grandparents popping over for the afternoon, go swimming etc. The staying in bed till midday thing has not kicked in for my two, one is up by 7 every day, the other by about 8.30, so it can be a long day for them when we are both at work.