How to use my annual leave

[Coffeesnob11]

I am a lone parent who works a high pressure job 5 days a week. I wfh 2 days a week most weeks but have to travel to London and around the UK too.
My son started school in September and I am now trying to work out what annual leave to take this year. I work in a team with 2 other parents (both men but very much involved) so we have that to juggle as well. I like taking the inset days as it allows us to go to theme parks etc when most kids are in school.

How do you take your holidays. Do you have any tips. I have worked out I would need 63 days excluding bank holidays annual leave to cover everything. I get 27 plus the bank holidays. My sister will have him when I can't but I want to maximise my holidays. We have no holidays away booked as we have just moved and money is tight and it needs doing up.

My son has no contact with his father so I have him 24/7 365 days a year.

Any tips would be gratefully received.

Holiday camps are the way forward, depending on age then they are much cheaper options once they are around 8. Often school does sports camps which are around £25 a day here.
Can you do flexi time, so on the days you work from home you do 45 min to a hr longer. That would give you 1 day a month, 12 days a year extra.
Play dates so you can swap some days with another parent.

My Ds is in high school now but .. try to cover as much holiday as possible.

Does your Ds have her own children?

I would look at breaking up Christmas/Easter holidays so she doesn't run out of steam..also assuming she also has kids ensure you repay the favours

Are your 5 days a week Monday to Friday?

Two separate weeks over summer, use the bank holidays to take a week a Christmas and Easter and then a few days in each half term.
I also have one day in December to blitz Christmas.
That's how I manage mine.

Not a single parent but wanted to point out if this is your first move away from the year round availability of childcare via a nursery to relying on holiday camps and wrap around care - it’s important to establish when east childcare isn’t available.

so in our town, there are virtually no camps the last week of the summer holidays, generally because the camps are run from secondary schools who want to do settling in sessions for their new year 7s/12s. There’s also little childcare available over the Christmas holidays. (Having been used to nursery open until Christmas Eve, having to not just find the between Christmas care but the week before was a surprise.)

if you use a childminder for wrap around care, be prepared to have to match your holidays to theirs.

Can you work flexi? I keep my flexi balance up so each holiday I take 4 days leave and 1 day flex, that then gives me an extra week of leave over the year.

I will usually WFH on inset days, although mine are older, but like to keep my diary clear to catch up with emails on my first day back and the kids being home isn't a bother as they know to entertain themselves.

I paid my childminder a set amount every month which covered holidays, inset days and after school. Worked very well for the whole of primary school and was good for budgeting. I took hols when she took them ( did have extra also as I got more days AL than she took)

I prioritise inset days. Then Christmas as no holiday clubs seem to run then.

Then as you're a single parent especially I would take some days when he is in school to relax or get stuff done - we take about 4 days a year for this.

Then I would take off the weeks with good weather like May half term and mix it up a bit with some holiday club - it feels a lot to ask of your sister for her to do half of school holidays

Unpaid parental leave?

Oh and can you buy any leave? Some employers will allow you to buy 1-2 weeks of annual leave and it usually comes out of your wages over the year so it is less noticeable financially.

I teach now so not an issue but prior to that worked in industry with lockdown weeks and we would take

Aoril 4 days tagged onto Easter weekend
May 4 days tagged onto Bank holiday end of the month
August 9 days tagged onto Bank Holiday
October 5 days for half term
December 3 days between Christmas and New Year.

This was 25 days plus bank hols & your extra days could be inset days.

You would just need February half term; 4 days at Easter and 4 weeks of Summer covered.

yy to making the most of any flexi/TOIL system. Squeeze in an extra hour here and there when you have childcare and you can get a few days to take back.

make friends with other working parents, and do tit for tat playdates on your WFH days.

Look well ahead as to when holiday clubs are available. Locally there's plenty at October half term, the 6 weeks of summer, and easter, but not at Christmas or the other two half terms, so I prioritise those for leave.

I work in a school - a lot of the support staff offer holiday nannying to bump up their salaries (they don't get paid all the holidays) - might be worth putting an advert out on social media / childcare/ nannyjob and the like?

Sorry I should have been clearer. I am not worried about who will look after him. My sister definitely will and I pay her. It was more when to take holidays.

For those asking I work Monday to Friday but at my level you don't get overtime etc. I earn a really great wage so really can't complain but the hours and responsibility comes with that. I organise my own diary so can be fairly flexible with days I wfh depending on business needs. I can't take parental leave from a money or work perspective. We already desperately need another person at least, probably 2 as things are so busy. I often have to log on evenings and weekends but work like stink to reduce the necessity to do that.
I am just being indecisive with what says I want to pitch for as the other 2 understandably want school holiday times too.

Things we've found helpful:

• Nurseries for holiday clubs for younger children
• Childminder covering insets
• Condensed hours
• TOIL

Find out when other help is available - wrap around, summer clubs, your sister etc

Find out when other help isn't available.

Find out when all your child's inset days are.

Factor in a few half days for parent assemblies etc.

Work around that.

Surely this depends on how booking time off works at your work?

If you just want to maximise days off then presumably you'd take between Xmas and New year (3 days)

June half term (4 days)

August BH week (4 days)

Easter 2 weeks (8 days - total so far 19 days)

Then 5 days inset days (24 days)

And then another half a week somewhere (3 days)

That would mean you got 5 full weeks off, inset days and half a week's leave for 27 days annual leave. But it also means you would only get 1 week off in the summer holidays and obviously other people (including those who aren't parents but are e.g. married to or friends with teachers) may want those (holiday efficient) weeks off too.

I can't take last few days or first few days of the month (finance) but I try to to book February half term, a week in Easter, 2 weeks in summer holidays and October half term. My main colleague doesn't have school age DC though so makes it much easier as she prefers her leave out of the holidays. Fairest thing is to devise a way you all get similar leave for school holidays. Although controversially I do think your circumstances mean you should get some priority (unfair to your colleagues just my perspective). I save another week for inset days etc. I wfh completely but have 3 DC.

I can't take parental leave from a money or work perspective. We already desperately need another person at least, probably 2 as things are unless its your own business you can take unpaid parental leave from a work perspective. They have to give it to you, they can choose a different date to give it to you for business needs.

I always started with childcare and worked back from there, plus not taking the spring half term or October as they are always yuck weather. This usually meant time off between christmas and new year, a week at Easter, either the first or last week of the summer off, summer half term and some odd inset days.

With your team, I'd get together and all put down your respective school holidays for the year now (often half terms and easter are different) then you go round with choosing a week at a time each so that people can prioritise their needs around weddings or whatever, then you all get a first pick, and then go on from there. My colleague and I would split half terms between us if they coincided - we have always worked things out somehow

Seems like a lot of irrelevant advice here tbh - she has reliable childcare (her sister!) and is just wondering how best to use her annual leave allowance.

I think best thing you can do is talk to your sister, you’ll need to coordinate with her as if she wants to go on holiday/has other things to do you’ll need leave time for that.

So in your shoes I would check your workplace policies carefully (eg I worked in places where you couldn’t have more than 3 weeks off in a 2 month period/could never take more than 2 weeks consecutive/no time off in March etc etc).

Then check your inset days and term dates and sit down with your sister and a year planner!

I would "WFH" between Christmas and New year if possible, depends on your industry though but its often VeRy quiet.

My DC always go at a holiday clubs at Oct and Feb half terms and I work. There are loads of great holiday clubs where I live in London (they did a fab science one last October) and I think when it’s dark and cold, there are better times to do stuff together. I really like to go away at May half term and also love doing things on INSET days when other kids are at school and museums and attractions etc are quieter.

I am also on a decent salary that enables me to top up holidays by taking a couple of weeks parental leave each year.

You might find this useful.

I haven’t checked it out myself though.

I think best thing you can do is talk to your sister, you’ll need to coordinate with her as if she wants to go on holiday/has other things to do you’ll need leave time for that.

Yeah I find it weird that the OP seems to be assuming that her sister won't have any schedule to work around at all - presumably that is the first thing to work out.

I also wouldn't assume it's the best form of childcare for your son - he may actually want to go to holiday club instead