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Original poster

How do you manage childcare for the holidays when you work full time?

62 replies

delilabell · 17/10/2023 13:00

I'm looking at moving from a term time only job to an all year round job.
I have 2 children 11 and 7.
Myself and my husband would get 27 days each holiday.

If you're in a similar situation how do you manage things?
Thanks :-)

OP posts:
Talipesmum · 17/10/2023 13:02

With age 11 and 7 - holiday clubs.

MaggieFS · 17/10/2023 13:02

My son is younger, but we use holiday clubs.

For the longer summer holiday, we break it up with taking a bit of leave each and then one holiday all together.

EnglishGirlApproximately · 17/10/2023 13:04

Lots of holiday clubs, working from home and DP working weekends to get week days off. DS is in year 7 now and being left alone for half a day for the first time next week as there just isn't any club available for his age.

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Families
Invisimamma · 17/10/2023 13:04

We take a week family holiday together, then a couple of weeks separately and pay for childcare for the remainder.

megletthesecond · 17/10/2023 13:04

The odd week of unpaid parental leave. Can be the same cost and less stress than holiday club. Especially in winter.

Jessforless · 17/10/2023 13:05

Working from home, arrange play dates and help each other out.

bengalcat · 17/10/2023 13:07

used a combination of pgl holidays and childcare.com holiday nannies ( usually a student wanting to earn money ) - preschool had a FT nanny

Original poster
delilabell · 17/10/2023 13:11

Quick replies thank you! How about the other holidays eg Easter half term etc

OP posts:
EllieQ · 17/10/2023 13:19

We don’t have any family nearby who could help out, so we use a mix of holiday clubs and taking leave for all the school holidays - half-terms, Christmas, Easter, and the summer holidays. It’s all planned out of a spreadsheet and holiday clubs are booked as soon as possible. We are lucky to have a holiday club at school that is open for each holiday and open 8-6.

This half term, I’ve booked the Monday off and DH has booked the Friday off, with holiday club booked for the other three days.

Over the summer, we might have a week off together, then we’d each take another week off separately so that covers three weeks out of six. DD is 8, so we were able to book a couple of activity days that run 10-3 then wfh with her at home for the rest of the afternoon in the summer, as a change from holiday club for her.

SheilaFentiman · 17/10/2023 13:20

Holiday clubs are usually available easter and summer and sometimes other holidays too

caban · 17/10/2023 13:21

Holiday clubs, childminders, summer au pair.

TheCompactPussycat · 17/10/2023 13:25

Mine are grown up now but when we were in that position it was a case of not having time off at the same time/holiday clubs/grandparents.

You should be entitled to some unpaid parental leave whilst they are under 18, so that might be worth exploring too.

Broodywuz · 17/10/2023 13:28

Not sure what your extended family set up is but I was speaking to a friend who's in laws are a 3 hour drive away, their DC go to stay with grandparents for a week of the holidays. They will take them over on the sunday afternoon and one of them will take a half day to collect them friday afternoon

SheilaFentiman · 17/10/2023 13:31

If you have the cash, things like pgl can cover a week too

Katy123456 · 17/10/2023 13:32

Mix of grandparents, holiday club and additional unpaid leave.

SallyWD · 17/10/2023 13:33

Holiday clubs, annual leave, working from home sometimes

CyberCritical · 17/10/2023 13:41

There are 13 weeks of holiday plus random days and sickness to cover.

So we have 1 week off all together during the summer and another over Xmas. We try to save a week each for random days, we can either carry these over or use them at the last minute to increase Xmas leave.

Then we swap out so I'll be off for feb half term, DH for May half term etc.

Any days we can't cover are holiday clubs, there are a few different ones and we try to vary it up, favourite is the most expensive at an outdoor pursuits centre with climbing, boats, bushcraft and so on. We also do a more basic crafts/sports one at her school and one at a trampoline park.

SheilaFentiman · 17/10/2023 13:47

Some companies let you “buy” extra leave

Redlarge · 17/10/2023 13:48

I repeatedly dive into debt and poor mental health.

Iamblossom · 17/10/2023 13:49

We took two weeks off in summer and had a family holiday and usually February half term off to go skiing. The rest of the time we used holiday clubs. Which they enjoyed thank goodness.

Sanch1 · 17/10/2023 13:52

Combination of our own annual leave, grandparents, holiday clubs and working from home.

Somewhatchallenging · 17/10/2023 13:53

A mix. Holiday clubs. Unpaid leave. A week’s stay with grandparents- they lived 200 miles away, so they never did any regular childcare). My workplace also let me reduce my hours in the summer holidays (for reduced pay), and then back to normal in September.

GymGym · 17/10/2023 14:01

Same as most people - had one week off with dh a year and then we covered the holidays with a mix of holiday clubs and annual leave. It’s a constant juggle. Interested to hear how you thought people covered it OP

Khvdrt · 17/10/2023 14:05

Your issue is going to be your 11 year old as once they’re in secondary school there’s not much childcare but you may not want to leave them all day. Im not sure of the solution there

Original poster
delilabell · 17/10/2023 14:05

I'd no idea @GymGym that's why I was asking :-) I've always worked during tern time only since having my children so this is completly alien to me.

OP posts: