Be honest. Who worked from home while also having their DC their over Easter hols?

[Whatsgoingonwithmyhead]

Less of DC’s classmates at camps and a lot of the parents very vague about their plans.

Just wondering how common it is for people to WFH whilst also looking after their kids in the school hols these days ?

Did you do this? How old are your DC and did you get a proper days work done?

I used a mixture of camps & grandparents. Appreciate I’m fortunate to have local, helpful grandparents and I earn enough to pay for camps. I also took some annual leave. My DC is 5 and super active so no way could I work with her there!

Just interested. Not judging anyone. School holidays are long, money is tight and not everyone has family help so appreciate covering school holidays is a huge headache for lots of families

Edited to say I note the typo in the title before someone leaps on me about it!

I don't know, it depends on the child and the camp surely? Good quality activity camps for a hobby they enjoy generally go down well with my two.

My daughter was up and packed by seven every day last week she was so excited for hers! And my son specifically asked to do his even though he is old enough he'd be fine to stay home, and I ended up taking one of his friends each day too as he heard about it and persuaded his parents to let him go.

Mine is only 5 so definitely not an option at the moment. I do think it’s a bit shit though - she’s hardly going to have a fun day with me on my laptop is she? Maybe in the summer hols when she can be in the garden / paddling pool and I can sit in the garden and work with her, but at this time of year with the weather we’ve had she’d spend most of the day in front of a screen and I don’t want that. So she went to holiday clubs for the first week (between £25 and £40 a day - she did two different places) and then we took annual leave for the second week and went on holiday. Yes it’s annoying paying for holiday club but it’s a far cry from the days of £1500 a month nursery fees! 😁

i work from home (3days a week). kids are 8/10/15. they just entertain themselves while i work.

Women can’t do right for wrong - I posted a thread asking for ideas for entertaining my child while I WFH and was absolutely roasted for abusing a work policy they assumed existed 😂 why don’t we just give people a break instead of picking apart every word?

I agree.

Also children might say they prefer being on screens all day being at home but benefit from getting out of the house more.

I do this and so does every parent on my team. It's not a guilty secret, it's an accepted way of working.

I used a childminder when they were younger mainly so they weren't bored all day, but older kids are quite capable of occupying themselves.

Not mine. Absolutely not if I’m working. He’d much rather be at the leisure centre on an inflatable water assault course thingy or at football camp with his friends.

Hello, yep I do this with my 11 year old, he keeps himself occupied, he varies tv iPad gaming , drawing , trampoline and meeting mates at the local park. Not so much with my 8 year old, he is quite hard work anyway so maybe other disagree that 8 is ok! He needs entertaining at parts of the day , and will burst in during meeting etc. I usually find some camp for him for part of the day and he can be here for a few hours at the end of the day. I hope by next year he can also just be here to save money. Ha ha

It's because threads about remote working bring all the stupid to the yard, basically. People assume their own experiences are the universal standard.

I did this on 5 days. My kids are 9 and 7 and are perfectly happy to hang out with each other at home all day.

I’d check in with them whilst making a cup of tea and make the odd snack, and we’d go out for a walk over my lunch break.

I am not sure how I’d cope if I suddenly needed to go back to the office. I have no family to call on and I’d have a long round trip to deliver them to holiday clubs which then finish half way through the working day.

My 6 year old usually has one day a week with me wfh during the holidays. She likes having the time to do crafts, watch a film etc without having my toddler ruining everything, as he's still in nursery during the school hols. My boss is fine with it and knows if I don't get everything done in 9-5 then I'll catch up in the evening if needed. I wouldn't do more than once a week though, it's better for her to be in camps etc and seeing other kids (appreciate I'm lucky that we can afford this, I know it's not an option for all). Wouldn't attempt it with my toddler though, my company is v flexible but even they'd think that was taking the p!

My older two are ten and twelve so more like they are at home when I’m working. Altho I co-parent with their Dad who mostly doesn’t work in hols so they typically got here but might be here for a few hours.

18 month old was either with grandparent or his dad if I was working.

Something really needs to change in our society, its just not working.
It's no wonder so many are choosing not to have children at all. It's impossible to fit everything in and afford everything

Everyone I know either does wfh with kids some clubs or grandparents. I don't begrudge anyone trying to survive In this mess of a world.

One of mine is sen so clubs are very tricky and don't cater at all to sen. Even my oldest at 9 doesn't like clubs overly. They also only run till 3 so not a great help. We have no grandparents or family willing to help. We can't afford nursery for the youngest aged 1. So I am very much stuck till they are older so I can work properly. The school holidays and even day to day as our school does no wraparound care are just so impossible to cover. I would absolutely love to be earning more but wow is it hard to change around once you have kids. Meanwhile life continues to get more expensive.

I did for two days but my elderly dad was in the house too.

I have always WFH where my kids are so they know no different.

My work has just launched a new policy for home workers which says that you must have childcare in place as if you were working in the office in order to work from home. So this Easter hols I booked camps for three days, granny for two and the rest was annual leave. I’ve now got 4 days left for the rest of the year as I’ve already booked May half term and 3 weeks in the summer. I have three kids. Camps are expensive!

That is dependent on how old you are with leaving your dc in?

Mine have stopped at home on my office days with DS1s phone handy and my mum at home round the corner.

Please don’t feel worse. The previous poster was either admitting that their job was too easy or that they didn’t mind doing it badly. While laughing at others?!

I’ve taken all the half terms off as annual leave so far. Not sure what I’m going to do over the summer though. Hubby will have to take a few weeks off, I’ll only have 2 weeks to take off. We are in a rural area that doesn’t have after school clubs or holiday clubs, his parents are too old (80s and one has cancer), and I only have 1 parent left who is disabled so can’t), So I might have to have a week or maybe 2 with my 5 y/o at home. When he’s sick I’ve had him at home in bed watching the telly and my boss has been fine with this (I did offer to take a/l instead but he’d rather I worked and made up any time in the evening). God knows what I’d do if I was working on site. I’d probably make hubby quit his job as I’m paid more, but he’d probably not be on board with this.

I think it’s certainly primary aged kids but I’d have to look at it again to know for sure. Mine are all primary aged so that was the only bit that affected me. It’s annoying as I work from home full time and prior to this policy would work the odd day with at least one kid at home (if they were poorly, etc.) and it didn’t affect my performance, certainly if my DP was WFH as well (which he also does FT). So between the two of us we muddled through. Now, I’ve got to have full on childcare in place or take leave.

I do one short day, 9am-2pm, a week during holidays, with my 6 and 10 year old (with my managers permission). It's their rest day and I will work extra if needed (so continue on until 3or4) but I have a desk in my room and they have free access to electronics on that day so they take full advantage. They also have two days at holiday club and two days with grandparents.

11 would be a more reasonable and realistic age to have a limit. Very little childcare available for secondary age children and being honest if parents weren't WFH the kids would be home alone while parents were at work.

But 11 is also the age you'd expect them to be able to deal with a minor emergency.
Children of 8, 9, 10 are probably capable of entertaining themselves while parents work and are on hand to deal with emergencies.

I pay for my 10 year old to go to sports club, it's not a full day though so he's around after that. My eldest is a teen so does her own thing.

I have 1 primary who stops at home with my high school dc. They have a phone and my mum only lives round the corner if needed.

It has never been a problem with my job though. As long as the work is done and they aren't interrupting calls etc.

It depends on the arrangement with your employer as all that matters is that a wfh employee meets the agreed output. Today I had one meeting and a few emails, so I tidied my home office, and a did bit of mumsnetting. Yesterday I was flat out and worked through lunch. My role is bursts of intense work and lulls in between, and my employer is fine with that.

I work with loads who duck out to do a school run or do a morning in the office and afternoon at home. And its fine if there are older children capable of looking after themselves.

Last summer I pooled childcare with another mother which covered 4 days of the week. The boys had company and are old enough to look after themselves with me fixing them a lunch. Rainy days they watched movies and nice days they rounded up the neighbourhood kids to play.

I was open at work about the arrangement. I don't take the piss wfh. In reality I'm probably more likely to plug in extra hours at home because I'm not sidetracked with a colleague nattering.

My son is old enough to listen at the door to check I'm not in a meeting before coming in to ask something.

It's not just a perk for parents either. My colleague has an elderly parent that she dovetails his care with her sister. She does a week or two wfh when she needs, and longer if his care requires it.

The end result is that when our employer needs us to do occasional late nights or weekends, we're there with our shoulder to the wheel without question. It's a happy place to work.