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.

Bit different as I have DH who covers when I'm not on leave but here's what we do.

Xmas - I take full 2 weeks school holidays, it's a bugger to cover with holiday clubs due to closures so I just take the lot.

Feb half term - DH takes AL

Easter - holiday club and we are all off for the bank holidays

May half term - I take leave

Summer - DH and I both have the first week off so we can go away somewhere. Our schools break up earlier than the rest of the country so it's the cheapest time to go away. Rest of the hols DD is in holiday club 4 days a week then 1 day with us while we WFH or with her Nana if she can be free. I take the last few days when they do the Mon-Wed inset day thing.

Oct half term - DH takes AL.

These articles are pretty good for maximising your days...

www.getreading.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/how-maximise-your-holiday-time-25530366.amp

I always took
A week at Easter (4 days)
A week Spring half term (Bank Holiday monday) 4 days
2 weeks in August, including the BH, 9 days
3 days between Xmas and New Year (hard to find childcare for that week)
That was 20 of my 25 days.
If I still had it (and it hadn't been user to cover Illness, I would take october half term.

I did this for roughly 20 years!

Christmas is the absolute nightmare. Get your summer hols properly covered. Some people take unpaid leave. Also 100% you need and I mean NEED to keep some aside for sickness days.

In our family these always always occur in the first term back when everyone is mingling again for the first time in September and then the annual Christmas cough or whatever is going around.
That is what I found the most difficult. Not sure how you will manage travelling have you thought it through? Might be worth changing to a non travelling job asap if that's a possibility at least in the short term as that would be a nightmare imo.

My sister has 2 kids at the same school, works part time from home and hasn't planned any holidays, we live opposite and speak daily. I am paying her for looking after him so it's not a favour and if she couldn't I would book him into a club etc.
I can't change to a non travelling job. I have clients. Many are on London but some aren't. I have always travelled. I am lucky I have family support for overnights but I try to minimise the nights I stay away and often do very long days in order to still see him before school etc.
One colleague is not from the UK and neither is his wife, who also works in our company, so they have to split all their holidays to cover their child's holidays as they have no family help here at all. Other colleague is in a different situation as his kids are at private school, older as they are both secondary and his wife works part time term time only, but I recognise he is equally as entitled to holiday leave in school holidays. We all get on great and are pretty good at being fair about booking days etc. Most of the time we can reason things out.

In your position I'd aim for three weeks in summer ( don't go for the bh weekend), either whit or October weekend and a week at Easter. Baggsy inset days and aim for some long weekends to give yourself time to do things without DC.

How amazing to live opposite your sister and have that support! No advice just jealous 😅

I usually take a week off at Christmas, a week at Easter, a week at May half term and then 2 weeks in summer holidays. I don't bother with February half term as it's shit weather and I'm not allowed October half term as it's the busiest time at work.

My DC loved the school holiday clubs. So much so we used them when we didnt need it for childcare. He had so much fun, visited lots of places. For him it was better than going to the same places with just me.

You need to hold back some a/l for dc sick days, appointments etc.

It's a good idea to get inset days off as you said.

I also take the week before Xmas as it's so busy.

Never minded working in between.

My DD loves holiday club too, we pay a bit more and use the local outdoor pursuits club so she spends her days doing kayaking, climbing, bushcraft and all sorts of fun stuff. Once a week they take the kayaks on a full day outing down the river to a big park for a picnic, they catch crayfish, pick blackberries and build a campfire to boil them down into a syrup that they dunk apple slices into for a snack, they use charcoal from the fires to do artwork. All while I'm sat at my desk staring at spreadsheets. I get a bit jealous to be honest.

taking the last week in august means you get 10 days holiday for 4 annual leave days - added to which its a cheaper time to go away for some holidaysThat leaves 5 weeks of the summer holidays to cover - but at this time there are more likely to be summer clubs for your dc to go to and give your sister a break.

Taking the days between xmas and new year would be my least favourite time, unless you are physically going away. The other days are bank holidays.

Easter if you can book a week either side, again you only need 4
days for a week or 8 days for a fortnight

When are the peak times of year for your business?

I typically take:
1 week feb
4days in April (+bank hols)
2 weeks summer (sometimes separate weeks)
1 week October

then I play Christmas by ear and wfh, it’s year end of us so sometimes busy sometimes now and a lot of people are off so generally manage to keep an eye on my phone & the kids without using up the leave

I was in a team of 3 and we each took 2 weeks in summer, two of us had a week each for Easter and the 3rd had the October break, the rest we just took days here of there. This worked really well for years

What does your company require? Do you have to have a minimum number of people at work in your team at anyone time?

Hi OP
I found two patterns helpful in similar circumstances, depending on how flexible your job is.
1)you can take three days off in one week and WFH the remaining two days (ideally alternating) - let your child have “rest” days when you WFH and let them watch tv, get a bit bored while recovering from days out with you- I found that taking 5 days in a row during school holidays and trying to keep it active and fun was quite draining for all of us. We decided that having rest days was best and I could wfh during that time, rather than use my leave.
2) working 7am-noon daily during one week of school holidays in summer- this way you’ve done a 5 hr shift and only have to take 2.5 hrs leave that day. Over the week you only take 12.5 hrs leave but you’re available to spend time with your child from 12pm.