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Original poster

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

218 replies

Whatsgoingonwithmyhead · 15/04/2024 08:34

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!

OP posts:
Yurotha · 16/04/2024 16:59

I always do. My employer doesn't give a shit when I do it as long as I get the work done to a good standard.

Ri06 · 16/04/2024 17:09

LauderSyme · 15/04/2024 08:41

Your language is rather odd. Why would this be a parent's guilty secret?

Shock horror, person with child rearing responsibilities needs to earn money. You perplex me.

Some companies have it written into their working practices policies that you should not be caring for children during working hours/you should have suitable childcare for working hours.

K0OLA1D · 16/04/2024 17:14

Ri06 · 16/04/2024 17:09

Some companies have it written into their working practices policies that you should not be caring for children during working hours/you should have suitable childcare for working hours.

Show quote history

This is where the rule blurs though. As I don't care for my children when I am wfh. I am merely just in the house with them

Interested in this thread?

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Families
MystyLuna · 16/04/2024 18:46

I work from home full time and my husband looks after my son.
I couldn't do my job and look after my child at the same time.

Imisssleep2 · 16/04/2024 19:05

I work from home with flexible hours around childcare, although currently on maternity leave. Before that I used to work early mornings and naps and my husband's lunch too cover my hours, so never worked while I had our son, 3yo. I couldn't do both, I'd make mistakes, we will have to take annual leave for school holidays but as I work flexible hours I could still get a half day done with early mornings and other halves lunch so that will help stretch it out.

Swissmeringue · 16/04/2024 19:51

It's a last resort for us. We did one day where we were both working from home and DD (5) was home as holiday club wasn't running on a Monday. It's fine as an occasional one off but I can either parent or do my job, I can't do both at the same time and nor do I want to.

I'd feel differently if she was a bit older I think. Ds is still at nursery which is thankfully year round!

Monkeytrousers04 · 16/04/2024 19:55

K0OLA1D · 16/04/2024 16:57

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.

Show quote history

It’s never been a problem with my job either… my work has now made it a problem (for me personally)… I’m assuming for the reasons @MoominPyjamas has pointed out, which actually make a lot of sense so I’m grateful for that explanation. 🙂

Segway16 · 16/04/2024 20:06

Older kids we send to various clubs and camps. Youngest has SEN so they can’t go to clubs and we don’t have much choice but to try to work with them here. If needs be we work in evenings and weekends to make sure everything is done.

NoEffingWay · 16/04/2024 20:10

DS is 12, he is home for all of the holidays. I take leave if I can but sometimes he's at home whilst I'm working. It's no secret, but he's too old for clubs etc so it's not a big deal.

DelurkingAJ · 16/04/2024 20:20

..

DelurkingAJ · 16/04/2024 20:22

AmyandPhilipfan · 15/04/2024 10:36

I knew someone who claimed she and her husband, at the same time, did 10 hour wfh shifts all of lockdown with two children at home. At the start of the first lockdown they were just turned 1 and coming up to 3. I just didn't know how it was possible. Either her work or her children must have been suffering, surely?

Mine were 4 and 7. DH a teacher (SLT so lots of paperwork), me one of those strange jobs that clearly wasn’t essential but was marked as such by either government so no furlough available. We got up at 6, tag teamed until 7 when DSs went to bed then worked on our laptops until midnight. Maybe not quite 10 hours a day each, but pretty close. Second lockdown we (feeling guilty as I was still WFH) took up the key worker school places. It nearly broke us. And DS2 went feral.

SoupChicken · 16/04/2024 20:55

I don’t but it grates because no one will pick up my work if I take a day off to look after an ill child, so I’d rather work and look after them than have the day off and have to catch up later, but it’s against policy.

RazzleDazzleEm · 16/04/2024 20:58

I don't understand?
Dh has worked half week at work since covid and is absolutely fine with dc at home? Doesn't affect his work but they are older. But he could still be work if they were younger. Obviously tougher with a toddler.

Btwmum23 · 16/04/2024 21:02

I have a 6 and 9 yo and they go to camps till 6pm. I have colleagues who keep older kids at home (up to 10yo, but some are 5/6 yo). We are not measured on the time we are on line but we on the outputs but we do have a lot of on-line meetings. Some had to excuse themselves as the kids were disturbing, interrupting the meetings. It is ok once but extremely unprofessional several times a day. Their outputs decreased considerable. The rest of the team is picking up the slack which is not fair. I refuse as I am paying for camps so I don’t see why I need to put extra hours after bed time just cause they can’t arrange childcare. This is the reason number one why employers are mandating returning to the office and it will penalise everybody but especially working mums like me who would have to add the commute hours to the rest. I think companies should stipulate clear policies of not wfh with kids under 15, people can still do it, as they can cheat on expenses or pretend to be working, but at least is clear they are not working properly.

BingoMarieHeeler · 16/04/2024 21:04

LauderSyme · 15/04/2024 08:41

Your language is rather odd. Why would this be a parent's guilty secret?

Shock horror, person with child rearing responsibilities needs to earn money. You perplex me.

Same 😂😂 ‘Be honest’ somewhat contradicts the ‘no judgement’…..

BingoMarieHeeler · 16/04/2024 21:05

DH WFH around the kids all the time. Like the kids are on his lap watching telly while he’s on a call. And to make matters ‘worse’ I’m also swanning around the house being a SAHM 😄 Miraculously he still gets all his work done and then some.

Btwmum23 · 16/04/2024 21:06

K0OLA1D · 16/04/2024 17:14

This is where the rule blurs though. As I don't care for my children when I am wfh. I am merely just in the house with them

Show quote history

It is not blurred. If the kids are at home and would not be kids that you can leave at home alone, then you care for them. It is clear. If they are old enough to be left at home alone all day if you were in the office, then you don’t care of them, otherwise you do.

Anonymous2025 · 16/04/2024 21:12

Me and all my team . I don’t have an issue with any of them having children while working from home . I know them well enough to know it works well .

ChicagoBears · 16/04/2024 21:16

DC were at camps for the majority which finished at 3. DC were at home with me for a few short hours at the end of the day but they were knackered and did some crafts and reading. I did take some PTO to break it up a bit.

Needanewname42 · 16/04/2024 21:21

Btwmum23 · 16/04/2024 21:06

It is not blurred. If the kids are at home and would not be kids that you can leave at home alone, then you care for them. It is clear. If they are old enough to be left at home alone all day if you were in the office, then you don’t care of them, otherwise you do.

Show quote history

It is a bit blurred though.
The point when you are 100% happy to leave children home alone, is when you are confident they could cope with a minor emergency, like a power cut or the smoke alarm going off, or a stranger knocking the door.
So probably 11 or 12.

But a 9 or 10 year old is probably capable of entertaining themselves all day, and not requiring parenting but not be 100% confident in them dealing with the emergency situations above.

Xtraincome · 16/04/2024 21:30

Mixture of DH, granny and me. I worked about 5 days across the 2 weeks. Its the summer break i worry about! 6 weeks! Cant afford camps and holiday pay is rubbish at my company.

Vod · 16/04/2024 21:30

Needanewname42 · 16/04/2024 21:21

It is a bit blurred though.
The point when you are 100% happy to leave children home alone, is when you are confident they could cope with a minor emergency, like a power cut or the smoke alarm going off, or a stranger knocking the door.
So probably 11 or 12.

But a 9 or 10 year old is probably capable of entertaining themselves all day, and not requiring parenting but not be 100% confident in them dealing with the emergency situations above.

Show quote history

Yep.

It's absolutely blurred. There is no black and white here.

spriots · 16/04/2024 21:54

BingoMarieHeeler · 16/04/2024 21:05

DH WFH around the kids all the time. Like the kids are on his lap watching telly while he’s on a call. And to make matters ‘worse’ I’m also swanning around the house being a SAHM 😄 Miraculously he still gets all his work done and then some.

I had a boss like this for a while.

He thought he was being very productive - he was actually a huge pain to work for because it wasn't great to try and discuss something with him while he tried to persuade his toddler to watch Bluey.

LeanIntoChaos · 16/04/2024 22:08

I can't work from home, but my husband is self employed from home. When he started in that role, I got so excited that I wasnt going to have to really worry about holiday childcare for our 4 children.....

After one half term, I realized this wasnt going to work. I would come in to five irritated, lethargic and grumpy people. The kids would still be in PJs and had had too many screens and they had fought and my husband had shouted....

I buy two weeks extra annual leave which means I can cover all but one week of Easter and three weeks in summer.

The second week of the Easter holidays, my husband took the first two days off as AL and took them all out. The little two (7 and 10) went to forest school camp and got filthy for the last three days. 12 year old went to sports camp and we allowed the 14 year old to stay at home (i would happily leave him home alone all day)

I think it can work in some situations, but I'm not sure it's ideal, particularly in primary school. But sometimes needs must. Can't advise it with 4 kids tho..... It turns a bit lord of flies-ish

Daisy12Maisie · 16/04/2024 22:16

Babies and toddlers need constant supervision but surely primary school aged kids can just be given things to do to entertain themselves? Eg a book for a bit, a film. In the office no one works constantly the whole time. People stop for cups of tea, to chat to each other etc.
depending on the set up of the house could someone not be on their laptop at the table whilst straight ahead of them in the lounge the children are playing Lego?

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