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!

Nope. Not acceptable in my company.

A colleague lost her job recently as she's had her child at home since birth, 2 years ago. It affected her output, she was given time to make other plans but didn't

I think there are black, grey and white areas with WFH with kids.

Black Under 5 no chance, just not possible, other than the odd emergency day with a sick child whos been sent home from school / nursery. I can see why companies say no.

6-10 Here it's a bit more grey they don't need as much input but will get bored.

11+ White all good they'd probably be home even if parents aren't

@MumblesParty "because - shock horror - looking after young kids is a job in itself, and it isn’t possible to do any kind of meaningful work when you’re in sole charge of young kids. So those who do work from home in those situations, are not doing their job properly".

Yes thank you, I am aware of the labour involved in parenting young children. However OP did not specify an age range; she asked a question about DC in general. As the responses on the thread show, wfh is a very different experience with older children in the house.

I appreciate the various responses my post generated. My riposte to OP was provoked by her "be honest" in the title, which struck me as patronising and judgemental, as well as unnecessary on an anonymous forum.

I do understand that employers need to maintain productivity and fairness amongst employees. That's why it is so marvellous for parents across the UK that good quality childcare is so easily and widely available at a reasonable cost, she says sarcastically.

Mixture of GPs and holiday clubs. Holiday club finishes 330 or 4pm. It’s a few mins away so one of us collects him and he then usually has a snack and plays on his iPad. He’s mega active so no chance I could keep him home. He’s also an only child and would be bored stiff anyway.

I WFH but customer facing. I couldn’t be on calls and have him popping into the room.

I would love for DS8 to go to a holiday club but he is autistic and finds them completely draining.
I usually WFH for around half the holidays - sometimes this is half days and occasionally I am able to take a block of days off which is wonderful for me.
DP also works less hours and somehow we manage!

I took two weeks annual leave and my husband took 1 week, but we could have worked from home a little bit if needed (I needed the break more!). Our children are 12 and 10. Last summer holidays we had 6 days at the start where we both needed to work and so the children were at home with us and no childcare - they played in the garden endlessly and it was fine, but as I say they are old enough to be completely independent for several hours at a time. When they were younger I couldn’t have done that - obviously I used to catch up on work while they napped if they were home ill but I wouldn’t have worked through their holidays. However I am lucky to have a generous holiday policy and I am senior at my work so I can adjust things around and work flexibly. The summer hols is the only one where between us we can’t cover all of it (8 weeks) but we do cover most of it using annual leave as we only ever take 1 week off at the same time, to go on holiday.

for some of the time, yes. However I refuse to feel guilty - my boss is married to one of the juniors who constantly takes the piss - I.e. getting her nails done and not working all day then posting about it on social media. Not sometimes logging in for most of the day. “Working” abroad but only logging an hours time. Until they do something about that, I’m not going to feel guilty.

My children are 7 and 5 so they are at home with me all holidays. I only work 3 days a week and usually finish by 1/2pm so not a big issue. Plus if there is a holiday club i would put them in 1 or 2 days so they’re not stuck at home. When they were younger i dropped them off to my parents for a few hours.
My work is very flexible. My manager has 2 children that are younger than mine and they stay home with him too in the holidays for at least a few days anyway, other days in laws.

I did. DH did. Like every holiday. Like all my colleagues.

Maybe because most jobs wouldn't be too happy about parents not actually doing their job properly. I know my job wouldn't be, I had my 5 and 3 year old two days over the easter holidays and it was definitley a guilty secret.

With DS (2) I wouldn’t work from home whilst he was at home unless he was ill but I’d be very upfront about that, and DH is at home too so we would work in shifts across the day to cover. With DD (6) we would work more consistently if she was at home unwell and she would largely entertain herself. In the school holidays, aside from the odd inset day, we would still put her into holiday clubs.

I expect that to be my default whilst she is at primary school. My work has an explicit policy that states that you must not be caring for a child or other dependents during work time and I fully agree with that being the case, except in emergencies and with unavoidable illness.

A lot of people I work with collect their kids at the end of the school day and return to work too. I use after school club as I prefer to focus on work during working hours!

You don't know whether most jobs would be bothered or not. Your DC are younger, and I for one would really struggle to work with a 3 year old around so I get that. But when they're older primary to early secondary, it really does make a difference.

There's also the point that there are some employers who don't like it at all, but understand it to be the least worst option. If an employee is otherwise good, but can't get suitable childcare for every working day over 13 weeks of holidays, it might make most sense to suck it up. Particularly if the employer knows there's no guarantee a better replacement would be available.

There is also a thing many who are able to WFH are in professional roles with contracts that say 'work the hours required to fulfil the role'.

Very often this means unpaid overtime and stupidly long hours, with or without children at your feet.

I try to put them in camps, but our local nursery also does a childcare holiday club for under 10s which is cheap. Sometimes its unavoidable and some days I have less meetings for example and its easier. But I cant do activities with them while working so they have to watch tv so I worrg about that but the odd day is ok to do. Its a struggle tbh, camps are the best option but expensive.

I worked from home one day with the kids, although it was allowed by management during holiday periods. It was a day from hell, got no work done and the kids were so naughty. Put them in clubs and with grandparents after that.

We tried a day with grandparent in the house in February and it was awful for everyone.

Dd went to holiday club for 3.5 days per week from 7.30am - 6pm and I worked long days on this days. DH took AL and I took two half days.

its hard enough just checking random emails etc with DD in the house after holiday club.

I think it’s really unfair on younger children to keep them at home whilst you’re working. They would get so much more out of holiday clubs.

It’s different with older children, WFH with older children is fine.

I did, because that's where my kids live. It's not just my office.

I do find those who look after young DC while wfh don't put wfh in the best light. It's like saying they don't really have an awful lot to do, it's easy, also not the best for the kids to have partial attention. No commute, uncomfortable dress wear, being able to do housework or nip out are things those who can't wfh see as a bonus, so to throw simultaneous childcare into it does make it look ridiculously TTP. Xx

I did, 10 and 15 and started work before they woke up and emerged, and took a long lunch break for a walk. I also tend to do some hours on Sunday to even things out, but I'm not paying for clubs they wouldn't enjoy.

I agree! I remember during covid, it was nigh on impossible getting through to a lot of services, which was understandable due to the circumstances of working and looking after kids in lockdown. However, this isn't the case now, and people need to do their job fully, not miss calls and tasks they're being paid for because they are taking care of toddlers/babies/tweenies. Those of us out out at work have an half hour lunch break to try to catch up on our own matters, so not being able to get through because they are too busy with home domestics is unprofessional and unfair. Xx

Good idea! Xx

👍👍👍

Notice she didn't address the point about the NHS pension though! Almost like it was a totally selective post...