To think the schools break up far too late?

[justnotaballetmum]

They do, don't they?

It is nearly the end of July. The best weather (ha, I know, but stay with me!) has gone. It's practically August by the time they are released and distinctly autumnal.

Wouldn't it be better to break up start of July and give them a couple of extra weeks?

Sorry about delay, as I am not a SAHM I don't have the luxury to be on mumsnet all day. What about if I was? Nothing wrong with staying at home to take care of your own children, why would you look down at someone who is making sacrifice for their kids?

How do you plan childcare? Well, get a job that allows you to be flexible. How many mums work weekends and evenings, when their partner is home to look after their kids? (or vice -versa).

Plan the cost! Get a nanny , and when they are older an au-pair (or keep the nanny, I know nannies who have been working in the same family for more than 10 years). It's probably easier to have someone during the school year, and another au-pair during the summer, but everybody can find a solution.

We also swap kids with friends, take some for a week, give them ours for another week. I have 35 days holidays, that's 7 weeks and I can't take my kids to work with me.

I agree, there should be more real holiday camps, so kids can go to the beach or enjoy a proper holiday. What did you all do when you were young? I am speechless when people say that the holidays are too long and their kids are bored.

Also, I did not compare being in a classroom to child labour. I said that's "children are uncomfortable at school , too bad" could be applied to anything and is nonsense. Would you say "poor children can't afford to eat in the summer, too bad"?

The key bit of your post, Shark, is that you have 35 days holiday...

Though you make a point, albeit flippantly and without intending to, that families that rely on FSM are doubly penalized by long summer holidays: the risk of falling behind their peers, as they can't afford to go to a STEM summer camp or music residentials, plus they lose a decent meal (maybe two, some schools extend breakfast club to FSM students too) each day

Also, Shark, are you really advocating that at 18, when heading off to university, that all these young adults should base their degree and profession on potential childcare issues that may or may not arise?
Not all jobs have flexibility. Not all jobs can be done p/t and certainly not at weekends.

And whilst I'm fortunate enough to afford a nanny, many thousands of working parents are not. Also, school wraparound suits my children better as they do lots of after school activities on site including their music lessons as the local peripatetic teacher travels to their school after school twice a week.

There is a real problem here affecting many thousands of parents who simply cannot afford a nanny and who are reliant heavily on the cheap after school and summer clubs run locally. Many of these parents dread their child getting chickenpox or the like as they are simply working to the wire in terms of cover.

And sharing it out with other parents only works if you don't have more than they have and therefore they're not stuck home all week as it's impossible to fit 7 children in a car and go anywhere safe!

Shark... I am agog at your post. I'm a single mum. I work full time. No family support. I get 17 days off this year... I am tearing my hair out with the summer holidays. I have 3 days off. The rest is a massive, expensive juggle. Most holiday clubs around here offer 9am - 3.15... no good when you need 7.30 - 6... funniy enough I can't afford a nanny or au pair despite earning a good wage. My DD is upset I can't spend more time with her. I dread the holidays. My preference would be make them shorter not longer.

Yes. Mine broke up on 8 July. He should have broken up the week before so that we could have gone in a cheaper holiday 😠

We used to have two weeks for Whit and five weeks in the summer. It was far better as the children actually had enough rest in May/June and the last seven weeks of school didn't feel so hard.

I appreciate that that doesn't fit with public exams but I wonder whether they could be planned better so more could be marked in those two weeks and there would be more time for revision.

We used to have ten weeks in the summer at my independent school (break up late June). My poor mother. I honestly have no idea how we used to fill the time.

Scottish terms are better than English, with a mostly-July summer and two weeks in October. I'd vote for that.

Since when has August been autumnal it's the height of summer!

As for when we were young; according to the survey I read, 64% of mothers sah in 1970 with another 18% working p/t around their husbands. Less than half that number sah today.

YES!! They should break up late June, go back early August, definitely. August weather is usually shit, and yes, in the UK mid August is when Autumn starts, in the sense of things dying down, night drawing in. Also, if they had earlier summer hols, the autumn half term could be earlier. Ours is usually around Halloween, and the weather is freezing. A couple of weeks earlier, so they get to enjoy some proper lovely September weather would be lovely.
It's so frustrating to drag through the inevitably boiling last 2 weeks of terms (and they always are) only to finally break up and a week later grey skies and rain. Yanbu

Oh ffs shark. I'm a chartered surveyor. What do you expect me
To do for evening and weekend work? Or should I give up everything I've worked for a get a job pulling pints in the local pub for minumim wage outside of MAN HOURS??

"Also, I did not compare being in a classroom to child labour. I said that's "children are uncomfortable at school , too bad" could be applied to anything and is nonsense. Would you say "poor children can't afford to eat in the summer, too bad"?"

No- I would say anything minor- like being hot- is too bad. Like common sense tells you.

We are still at school.

Also, those advocating the longer summer holiday for their special snowflakes who get too hot or tired haven't addressed the points put forward in this thread showing the poor outcomes academically of long holidays. Doesn't that bother you?!

I can't see school holidays changing much. But you are used to what you have, and as such you just accept it, I suppose. We have nine weeks summer holidays (NI) and there is no wraparound care or summer clubs where I live. (Well, there are summer clubs of sorts but just for a couple of hours a day, so if you're at work your children can't really go to them anyway). But we do manage, because we have to.

Moving the school holidays does not remove the mismatch between children having 13 weeks of school holidays compared to their parents having 4-5 weeks of holidays if they work. It doesn't matter when the school holidays actually are, those of us that work find it difficult to cover them.

SAHP enjoy the school holidays, because they have something to do during the day, whereas their children would usually be in school leaving them with time to fill. School holidays give them a different routine, whereas working parents spend more time juggling and most of us find them stressful.

Treaclesoda, but how do families cope with 2 professional working parents and zero family? I have friends in ROI who complain about it a lot saying there's massive expectation that everyone will have big willing families and that mothers will give up or massively scale back work. How is it possible to cover 9wks just in the summer when that's more than most people get annually?

And it's not about accepting it. It's about it being literally impossible to cover 13wks or in the case of Ireland 16wks on 5wks holiday a year.

Property the answer is that they don't generally. Something has to give. The only families I know with two full time working parents have got family help. Those of us without family help have to choose one person's career over the other. It's also not just high flying professional jobs that don't offer flexibility, plenty of employers don't offer flexibility of any sort.

I know plenty of parents with children at private school who complain about the longer holidays.

I don't think there is any consensus that holidays should be longer, as is clear from this thread. Some would like it but I think that would be more than outweighed by the bigger problems of those who would struggle, especially as it is lower income families that tend to lose out. Maybe slightly earlier would catch better weather, though I'm not totally convince. And you would need to do something about the long slog to Xmas. Not entirely clear how.

Property... I'm a professional single working parent with 0 family... the summer holidays are a nightmare 😕

Property sorry, I posted too soon. What I was going to say is that in our case we do have to accept it because there is no alternative.

Oh I know and in many ways, it follows that the less skilled a job, the less flexible it is or at least the less flexible the employers often are. I only mentioned professional as Shark was talking about p/t evening and weekend work. Unless you're a medic, this route is usually closed to those working in professional office based city roles.

I think the school system is inherently misogynistic.

Ah yes, I see what you mean

I had a thread last week where I was saying that my childcare for one day had fallen through. I went through ten other alternatives before I found someone who could help me out. In your worst organisational nightmares, you don't expect to be down to your 11th back up option