To ask parents of school aged children what hey do in the holidays?

[CherryChasingDotMuncher]

Having a chat with my friends yesterday, we all have kids under 4 (mine are 3.5 and new born). They are SAHMs, I work 3 days but currently on maternity leave. My 3.5yo is in nursery 2 days a week and will be until she goes to school in September. We were pondering what people who work do in half term holidays in terms of childcare. This sounds ridiculous but it's the first time I've thought "oh shit I only get 5 weeks holiday a year, who will look after them when they're off school and I run out of annual leave?!". DH is self employed so it's much harder for him to take holidays.

So can I ask what people do for childcare of small children who have to work in the holidays? I've planned to go back to work the first school day in January 2018 but I'm wondering if I may as well return after February 2018 half term (probably won't have enough holidays by then) save struggling to find child care.

Holiday clubs and nursery for the smallest. The half term week just gone cost me £380 in childcare for 3 days of work.

It sucks

DH and I alternate our holidays to save as much as possible, but we still end up with them in full time holiday club at least 6 weeks a year. Luckily we have no childcare costs in term time so we can save

My parents have the kids for two full days per week during the holidays.

We go on holiday/are off ourselves in most of the half terms/Christmas/Easter (even if just camping/visiting friends). We always choose the weeks that have a bank holiday in them, to conserve as much annual leave as we can.

We go on holiday for a couple of weeks in the summer hols.

Then the remainder we cover between DH and I taking leave, usually a day each for each remaining week. I usually take Mondays, they go to my parents Tues and Weds, I don't work on Thurs anyway, and DH usually has them Fridays. I "buy" 5 extra days of leave from work so that I have five days to use for childcare in this way.

Holiday club. Bloody expensive but the most practical solution for us.

Both DH and I work full-time, and it's a total juggling act trying to sort the holidays each year. DD is Year 4 now and we've got it worked out more or less ok, but did take some trial and error over the first year's worth of holidays.

We use a Holiday Club for 3 days a week, with DH taking one day off work and me taking another day off to make up the week. Christmas and Easter holidays, there are bank holidays to break this up more.

We go away for our main overseas break over the May half term because our school adds two days INSET. The 6 weeks summer is the killer! My parents usually take DD for around a week, and DH family do the same - although this has been a bit hit and miss in how well it's worked for us. We then take another week's family holiday, somewhere in the UK, so she's only in holiday club for 9 days out of the whole summer.

Holiday club, friends, and when she was in reception child minder.
I work p/t, single parent and no family help.

I keep reminding myself it is still a lot cheaper than when she was at nursery - £60 per day for 12 months. Now it's holiday club when needed for that price, and wraparound care only during term time.

She's a lot older now, but not old enough to be left at home. But I work from home a lot and she can just hang out and do her own thing when I am working.

As you are beginning to realise, organizing childcare for school age children can be much harder than it is for pre-schoolers!

I know of mothers who have managed to work full time with two young children but give up work shortly after the eldest started school as it became just too difficult to juggle child care.

We managed with a combination of annual leave, GPs who would have DD to stay for a few days, holiday club and cooperating with the parents of DDs friends who also worked.

one of you retrains as a teacher.

Holiday club, childminder and annual leave, with a bit of working from home. Eye wateringly expensive for three: prices are £40-50 per child, per day around here.

I use a childminder for school drop offs, pick ups and holidays. It is expensive but easy because no matter when it is in the school year my routine is the same.

A positive attitude that you'll muddle through somehow as everyone else does!

Working PT is a massive help - work 3 days pw and you're 2/5 way there already, though obv that's more expensive than childcare.
Then combo of a few days grandparents, various holiday clubs starting with going back to nursery then branching out into sports or outward bound, or gym/football/dance activities run holiday sessions.

Eg 3 half terms, each 1 day DH leave, 1 day me leave, 1 day grandparents, 2 days my non work days
Summer hols 6 weeks, 2 days pw me non work days, then the other 3 days are 1 week me leave, 1-2 week DH leave (3-6 days A/L), 1 week both, 1-2 weeks childcare, 1 week grandparents.
Christmas and easter hols we cobble together whatever leave we have left.
We have about 6-8 days' help from GPs a year, and they do about 6-8 days in childcare. If they are happy in childcare it is not that big a deal tbh, easier than we'd expected, but this is largely because of my working PT. The 3pm school finish and various homework, projects, costumes, PTA, admin are far more of a challenge!

Holiday club, swap with other working mothers, hope my DM will do a day or two. Take alternate leave with DH. Work from home.

It's tough but doable.

Parental leave is unpaid which makes it a much more expensive option than holiday club.

Holiday clubs and annual leave. It's doable. We can never have more than 2 weeks a year time off together, but that's life. We have no other help.

I think 2014newme that is often true. But Parental leave has advantages over part time or annual hours that make you better off which people often don't think about. It retains your salary for bonus etc purposes at work and you accrue annual leave while you are on parental leave, so it isn't true that it is entirely unpaid, it is only deducted from your pay that month.

Statutory parental leave is unpaid. Fact. There may be some companies that pay for parents leave but not many.
My point that it's therefore more expensive than holiday club due to the loss of earnings.
I am not comparing it with annualised hours or part time working.
I work oart time nut I still need childcare in the holidays.

I have a brilliant MIL who enjoys the school holidays, despite offering her money she refuses.

I am self employed so I have some flexibility. Although me missing a days work is expensive.
I get pretty annoyed when people say their children's father "can't help as he's self employed" while at the same time all the self employed mothers I know use their status as their own boss to juggle things around child responsibilities.
If self employed mothers can do this why do so many self employed fathers claim they can't possibly take time or juggle hours?

A combination of holiday club based at the school, grandparents, DH and I both take days off and taking it in turns to do days out with other parents.

Since DS turned 7 I've also started sending him to another local holiday club which is much cheaper. It wouldn't have been suitable when he was younger.

Can you look at taking a term time only job, or asking your dh to.
You sound like you have at least 10 years of finding care for holidays.

I work full time but get 6 weeks AL and can work extra hours up to take up to 2 days off per month. I can't fit this in every month but do try to make sure I get the hours up before school holidays. Generally, I take 2-3 days off each week and DH does the rest. He is self employed and works from home so if DS (10) is at home he can amuse himself some of the time. He can also go out with DH if necessary and DH can work evenings and weekends if needs be. To supplement this, DS goes to activity club, sports club and friends houses for a few days. DH and I don't take leave together unless we are going away and somehow we seem to manage ok. When I worked part time, I had an arrangement with another mum where I had her DS one day per week and she had mine 1 day per week. That worked well.

Should add working flexi time is something I am very grateful for. We can basically do our hours between 7am and 7pm (local gov) which adds further flexibility.

Statutory parental leave is unpaid. Fact. There may be some companies that pay for parents leave but not many

You accrue annual leave when on parental leave, so it is not true that it is entirely unpaid. It may not work for you personally, but for some it is a better way of taking time off during school holidays than annual hours because annual hours = part time so you get a lower annual leave entitlement.

Playscheme /grandparents

playscheme is great as it is loads cheaper than nursery, plus children seem to love it (at least mine does). She asks to go instead of spending time with me.

We use childminder (the key for us here is to regularly use a childminder so you can also book them in the holidays) and holiday club (the only local 8-6 club so it gets booked up very quickly and I am still late for work using it anyway). Also DH and I take a bit of annual leave but not loads as my workplace in particular has reduced the amount of staff it will allow off in school holidays. (Plus I find there is a not so visible loss in doing that as there are then pointed comments about being off in school holidays which doesn't make for great working relationships).

It doesn't work for me because I work 9-5 type hours but friends who can do early shifts have some success with sharing drop offs with their partners or other parents to a 9am - 3pm style holiday club then finishing early enough to pick them up.

Holiday child care is one of the reasons for me reducing my hours recently from 3 to 2 days a week. It's not the main reason but it was a definite factor.

A good idea I picked up from MN is that in each school holiday, think about childcare for the next to try to keep on top of it. You may need to be even more organised. My childminder is already pretty booked up for summer and you have reminded me I need to contact the holiday club!

@basicbrown
I am comparing holidsy club to unpaid parental leave.
NOT annualised hours which is an entirely different comparison.
E.g for the hard of understanding,
If holiday club is £25 per day for two kids it is £50 so £250 for the week which is likley to be cheaper then losing a weeks salary.

Annualised hours is where you have an annual number of contracted hours rather than a weekly number e.g 1950 per annum rather than 37.5 per week. Your hours can then be scheduled so that you are off in the school holidays and you work extra at other times. Obviously all sujpbject to agreement t with your company. But annualised hours doesn't necessarily mean a reduction in wOrking hours and therefore would not impact on pay as you get paid in 12 monthly instalments that are equal.

Part time hours is wher you don't work the standard full time hours that th company has e.g you work 20 hours instead of 37.5. Your pay is pro rats acordingly.

Hope that clarifies.