Work and school holidays- anyone else struggling?

[RealJuggle3]

I'm finding the juggle so tough, I can't wait for school to start again.

We use holiday clubs but drop offs and pick up times are totally inconvenient and shorten the working day massively.

So we log back on once kids are in bed and it feels like we have no evening or break.

I was struggling with the logistics of it, but this week I'm also starting to struggle mentally - I feel like I have reduced mental capacity for work and I'm forgetting things or letting things slip which is unlike me.

It's adding a whole other level of stress to it all. I woke up at 3am feeling super anxious last night so I'm even more exhausted and useless today.

Argh!! Where am I going wrong?

We have the advantage of a two parent family. That means one person can cover mornings and do drop off and the other can do pickup and cover the late afternoon. Then each person shifts their work day accordingly.we also have the privilege of being able to do that. At the beginning of each week, DH and I split up the days based upon our respective schedules of meetings for the week, but our default is I do mornings and he does evenings.

it also gets easier as they get older.

Thank you @Ponderingwindow , we are also a 2 parent family but we have another DC to drop off at nursery somewhere else. So DH handles this one as it's on his way to work and I do the other.

Dh's work is also very inflexible and he often needs to work overtime anyway, so most of the juggling with school aged DC falls to me.

I think this week is particularly overwhelming as we've had crazy amounts of life admin on top: the car wouldn't start on Monday, toilet started leaking and needed a plumber, boiler needed servicing and DH's leg fell through the loft so we now have a hole in our ceiling!! My phone is also playing up and needs replacing. I could cry!

What age would you think it gets easier? I'm thinking we have another 8 years before it does. Sigh!

If it’s not realistic . Can you take time off to short days?
Instead of taking 1 day holiday, will your work allow 1 day holiday but split over 3 days? Ie you do 3 5 hr days instead of 8hr days?

I'm really finding it hard and I only have to work 3 days in the holidays. Single parent, 2 dc. I'm exhausted.

@Caspianberg yes that could work, the only issue is that I do need the full days off to cover for days with no childcare (had two this week as holiday club was fully booked), so not much holiday to play with either.

@Bemyclementine I can't even imagine how hard it must be as a single parent. At least I occasionally get to check out of washing up or something. And I know days off work with kids aren't much more relaxing than work anyway.

Are there clubs further away that have longer hours? I don’t use the club at my children’s school as the hours aren’t long enough. What has been a game changer this year is I’m somewhere where you can book leave in hours. I did one week of camp 10-5 but taking a couple of hours a day made it much less stressful as didn’t need to make up time and mornings were just really chill.

It will be easier when you can have them all in the same place. I found it hard doing separate nursery and camp drop offs.

Unfortunately we are quite rural so I'd need to add an hour journey time per day to get to a club with better hours.

Good to know it might at least be better once they're both in the same setting. Just 2 years to go!!!