What do working parents do about school holidays?

[Terracottafarmers]

Inspired by another post: We’re thinking about trying for a baby soon, and I’m curious how do working parents manage the 6 weeks of summer holidays and all the other school breaks (Christmas, Easter, half-terms, inset days) when you both work? With only 28 days of annual leave each, how do you cover it all? Do you rely on family, after school clubs, or flexible working. We will both have to return to work pretty much as soon as we can so any tips will be appreciated

Personally, I already worked in education so DH had to use his holidays to cover training days, but I covered the rest. I paid our childminder a retainer through the school holidays to keep our place. If I had a different job then I'd have paid her full time through the holidays.

My school runs holiday childcare for the summer and easter weeks, but not Christmas or half terms, so that helps but isn't a complete answer for working parents.

Dh worked nights and I worked days. My dm helped a lot.

I work 4 days a week
For the days i can't take as holiday off work, she goes to different holiday clubs. There are 3 different ones where we live that we can walk to.

You find a way to middle through. Clubs, family, using leave.

Holiday clubs, only having 1-2 weeks off together as a family, unpaid childcare leave etc

As a widowed parent…

there are 13 weeks school holidays in the year:

• 5 weeks annual leave
• 8 days bank holidays
• 4 weeks paid for holiday club in the summer
• I work 4 days a week so that means 1 day a week (13 days) covered
• rest of the days grandparents kindly helped out

I can also work from home but try not to do that too much - don’t like DS not having a grown up’s attention.

With 2 parents it’ll be a doddle! (And cheap)

No wider family to help here so just me and dh. Lots of holiday camps. A lot of them finish at 4 or 5, very few go on to 6. Dh is self employed so he would make sure he'd finish early enough to pick dd up. Now she's 10, she is often just at home with him. We're lucky that dh is self employed, as my work is not that flexible, although I do have compressed hours.

You throw money at it and juggle juggle…

Everyone has different set ups

personally - we get organised early on. Calendars out and block it out. You’ll also need to factor in holiday weeks are popular to request leave from work and not guaranteed.
esp if you’re in emergency services, retail, etc .

It’s a mix of holiday clubs, sports clubs, few days each solo with kids, few days together as family,
then maybe swap a few days with another friend / have theirs they have ours.

if you’re lucky maybe extended family might be able to help but not an option for us.

essentially. Money and outsourcing will come into it.

We split the holidays in half then covered our halves with annual and unpaid leave. We have zero family and can't afford childcare generally.

My son is 15 now so it's a lot easier but until a couple of years ago I had to throw everything at it for 12 years:

• the statutory OPL that every parent (mother and father) are entitled to - I took at least 2 whole weeks per year unpaid. (10 days)
• all my annual leave (30 days)
• any lieu days I'd accrued (usually about 4 days per year)
• both sets of grandparents for 1 day or half a day each per week
• teamed with a close friend - I'd look after all our kids one day a week, she'd do the same

It's really hard but if there are 2 of you it will be easier. I did it alone between ages 7 and 12. I've always worked full time.

I only work four days (compressed hours). We both get 30 days holiday.

Book school holiday club as soon as it's available - they cover all half terms, one week at Easter and two in the summer, but places are very limited - I missed out on a few days this year even though I booked as soon as I saw the email.

Send to same private holiday club as friend for one week in the summer so they're not on their own.

We both WFH most of the time so someone can be around for early pick-ups. Fairly flexible employers, no-one would care if I was away for an hour so long as the work was done.

Grandma usually does one day per long holiday.

We only have one week off together as a family, plus a few random days to do a day trip/activity/long weekend.

It's not ideal and I only got two days off to myself last year, but it's not forever. I do wish we could have more time off together as a family, but we can't afford to go on holiday more than once anyway 😂

For the 6 week summer we both took a block of 2 weeks off at different times, the other 2 weeks we muddled through working opposite shifts and used the occasional holiday club. It was tough going and we didn’t have a holiday together for years.

You do a mixture, and it gets easier as the kids get older.

In reception I just paid for DC to go to our previous Childminder in the holidays, which was familiar and easy.

Further up during primary years each half term week would be 5 different arrangements from a choice of 7:

I take a day off
DH takes a day off
Grandma (my mum) comes for the day
Grandma (DH's mum) comes for the day
Day out with (childfree friend) godmother
Holiday club (we had a choice of 3 options)
Day with school friend (occasional reciprocal arrangements with other school mums and sometimes had a friend with us if I was taking a day off)

Longer holidays similarly split between the same 7 options but sometimes it would be 3 days staying with Grandma, or a week at a specific theme of holiday club (computing, water sports, etc)

From age 9/10 I was allowing 1day a week chilling out at home while I WFH as DC able to do so without supervision. That grew over the years and once they are mid teens most of the holiday is self-managed chill days with occasional activities/visits/plans with friends.

•Holiday clubs. For a few years they attended an amazing club they loved for £1/day (corporate subsidised sailing)
•Tag team holidays, so I’d take them away for a fortnight, then DH same. •Week with each set of grandparents.
Once they got to teenagerhood they’d often be away with friends or working/ doing courses and summer schools.

When we had to arrange child care for school holidays we used a mix of some annual leave between us, holiday clubs and the odd day with grandparents.

You say that not as a single parent though. And how exhausting it is as one person running up and down to drop them/collect. Work, organise all the holiday clubs/book it/pay for it, depending on if/what help you might get towards costs.
And then if you have any health issues too, this is too much for one person.

Adding to that, due to local cuts we are losing even more holiday clubs. And our nearest are not full weeks nor full days.

Luckily I live near family and my Mum helped out a lot.

Worst case scenario is you and DH take different weeks. You could also try getting together with friends/family and have reciprocal childminding agreements.

Annual leave, Flexi leave, grandparents, dh and I taking it in turns, play date swaps with friends, and holiday clubs. My children have done some fantastic holiday clubs.

Our childminder looked after them in the holidays, as well as the school wraparound. Obv apart from the holiday time with us when we were on leave. Sometimes holiday clubs instead.

Taking our holidays separately, we'd have one week together going away. Then holiday clubs, childminders, things like scout camps and PGL.

We don't have family nearby who can help, so we mostly use activity camps. There are plenty of them available where we are (London), so booking is never a problem, and the dcs have tried all different subjects - sports, dance, tennis, gymnastics, drama, art, science, forest school. It's a nice way for the dcs to be immersed in an activity and make new friends. They aren't the cheapest option and sometimes only run school hours, amd we need to travel to some venues so it's only possible because my work is flexible. But the dcs find them more engaging than the generic childcare holiday clubs and they tend to be run by specialists, so the dcs have gained some impressive skills.

We've never done childcare swaps - I'm not prepared to be an unpaid childminder and on my days with them I'd rather just have my own dcs as we tend to do big trips out.

DH and I take our annual leave together as we tend to use it for family holidays. It's not the most efficiently way of doing it but having that time together is important for us.

Quit my job and became a teacher.
Honestly, there was no other way in out previous set up I'd have manged otherwise. It was destroying me mentally.

Mix of everything, afterschool care which covers most holidays except Christmas and Fridays. They just find there isn't enough demand for those days.
Grandparents cover Christmas days we can't.

I'm sure many use childminders and reciprocal favours.

Both reduced working hours so only have 2 days a week where we both work, so that makes things a million times simpler. We mostly use AL for these but also a small amount of paid holiday club days, usually 1 per week/fornight in any week for a school hol.