Here we go again with the "I'm alright Jack" attitude so often seen on MN lately.
"If you can't afford a holiday outside of term time, then tough! Holidays are not a god given right."
No .... they're not a right but most people would agree that if you can possibly afford a break of some sort with your family then they're not only "nice to have" but, in some situations, a much needed and valuable opportunity to actually spend some time with all your family - that is your partner and your children (I rarely do this, due to working patterns, and I'm sure I'm not the only one). Additionally, there are many people in stressful jobs, maybe manual work, maybe long hours,who do genuinely need - shock horror - a rest every now and again but who literally and genuinely can't afford school holiday prices.
Have you considered that many people do scrimp and save, and would still only be able to afford to go away - for example, a cheap caravan holiday in Wales every other year - in term time.
But according to many of you, people in that category - i.e. very hard up - who, by definition, probably have a pretty crap time of it generally, with a poor standard of living and little or no social life - should pull their socks up, get some "responsibility" and deny themselves and their children the occasional holiday opportunity because otherwise they are being "totally irresponsible" and teaching their children the wrong attitude towards education.
Not one poster here who'd consider term time holiday has expressed either ingratitude for the UK's free education, nor stated that they feel education is unimportant. Quite the contrary, and if I could afford to book any sort of holiday at any time at all I'd do all I could to ensure my daughter caught up where necessary and obviously not book anything at a time when it would impact upon exams. Personally, all this term time holiday talk is a moot point for me but I do wonder how my child would feel in years to come, if, for example, I adopted the holier than thou attitude seemingly expected from "the less well off" by the "better off" and never took a holiday at all because I could only afford term time (and wouldn't be so "irresponsible") ? I wonder how she'd feel when she asked why we'd never had a family holiday and was told it was because I considered her education more important .... I know she'd argue that the occasional week missed would have been outweighed by being able to spend some time with both mum and dad.
It strikes me that the people flinging accusations of irresponsibility about are those who actually can manage to get away in the school holidays, and this is often accompanied by claims of "making sacrifices", "saving up" and so on (in the vein of "well, if we can do it, so can other people"). Well, guess what .... for some people, however many sacrifices they make, they will never be able to afford even the most modest break in the school holidays - it's all they can manage to scrape a modest break in term time, and good luck to them. Until you have actually lived in a situation where you and your partner are like ships who pass in the night and where your children rarely see you together, you have no idea how important the idea of genuine quality time together becomes.
For me .... that rare quality time would override education - for all of 5 days ... it hardly condemns my child to a lifetime of illiteracy and flunked exams. Life is about the whole picture and having fun and relaxing together as a family is extremely important too. I don't think I'm expressing this very well, but whenever the issue of term time holidays arises, it always seems to be accompanied by a very unpleasant undertone regarding the expectations of the "less well off" - almost as if "how very dare they" even have the audacity to think of doing something so many other people take for granted. I accept of course that there are families who take the piss - making up stories about sore throats so kids can have the day off for Granny's birthday, or worse, so their parents don't have to get out of bed to take their kids to school but for many families term time holidays are the only way they could ever afford (a very modest) break.