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.

We take turns taking time off when we can, unless we have booked to go away on holiday, grandparents have them some days and there are play schemes which run in town. My DD is also now 15 so I'm hoping I can rope her into baby sitting her 4 year old brother later on in the year. If I can trust them not to kill each other lol.

The fact that your holiday entitlement is not adjusted if you take unpaid
Arentsl leave does not change the fact that the leave is unpaid I.e you do not receive salary for the period of unpaid time off. Other benefits still accrue e.g holiday, service etc

What holiday care do people use for their kids if they are 12+ and they don't have family or friends who can take the kids?

Phenolic where we are holiday clubs at some of the Independent schools will take kids up to 16, whether they attend the school or not. Generally course based e.g cooking, sports etc

Childminder here - and I only get 20 days annual leave

I send them to summer camps because their school friends go and they love them, but still have to pay the minder as well! It costs a fortune! Even if grandparents were to take them out for a day etc. we'd still have to pay the minder. That's just the way it is (for us, anyway). We'll be paying childcare costs until the kids start secondary school - that's still a good few years away for now, so I'm sort of resigned to it.

Similar situation as my 3.5yo starts school this Sep. If all else fails his nursery have said they'll take him for the odd day until he turns 6.
Lots of kids there have term time only contracts so they have extra availability in hols.

Mouldy what is the issue here? You are making very obvious points?

There are people for whom taking parental leave while working more hours during the school term times leaves them better off. Yes, I would make more money by working full time during the school holidays as well, but I'd rather not as I'd rather see my children.

Just like many people choose to work part time all the time and get paid less. I'm just pointing out there are one or two minor benefits to taking parental leave over having an annual hours contract to take time off in the holidays. Why the angst?

just to be clear, the comparison you are making is different to the comparison I am making.
I am comparing unpaid parental leave with the cost of holiday club.
You are comparing unpaid parental leave with annualised hours.
They are not the same comparison, see?
HTH?

Why does it matter? Both are solutions to holiday childcare? I get that I'd be better off if I put my children in holiday clubs full time. Just like people who work part time would earn more if they worked full time. The things people will argue about is just

Thank fuck dh is a teacher.

Nobody is even commenting on your arrangements!
Streuth!
I have no idea what your arrangements are and nor do I care! You are going off piste stop derailing the thread!

LOL me derailing the thread

Reading this I'm glad I'm a teacher. Hard as anything during term time but hopefully worth it for the holidays. Do you have any teacher pals? My daughter is only 2 so this hasn't come up yet but when she's at school I'm sure I'll be happy to help classmates parents with childcare where I can - eg just having them over for a day a week, or a few days or whatever.

We usually muddle through with holiday clubs, sports clubs, working from home, grandparent help & reciprocal arrangements with other parents.

Last summer we got an au pair for 6 weeks which made things much easiser (and cheaper).

DP and I are both part-time, 5 days a week but some days shorter for school pickup. So if we take leave on our shorter days, then covering a week of holiday uses up less than a full week of annual leave IYSWIM. That'll let us stretch our leave a bit further. OP if your DP covers your 3 working days on half terms then if he is full time, he'll still have 2 days leave to use next half term. So it'll stretch further than you might think...

I ended up making a spreadsheet to work it all out.

We will prob use a couple of weeks holiday club so that we can go away together.

My parents always want ds1 &2 to go and stay with them for half terms and part of the other holidays- the rest we cover with a mixture of annual leave and eye wateringly expensive holiday clubs with inadequate hours. DS1 & 2 love their grandparents but have told me they don't want to keep going to stay so much, which is fair enough but means they're going to spend many more days in holiday clubs. Although I'm negotiating compressed hours at work atm so that might help a bit.
My DM was a teacher. She is always shocked and appalled by the cost of holiday clubs (part of why she's so keen to have the dc to stay I think) and surprised again every time I remind her I have 5 weeks holiday, not 13! (Not that any of the teachers I know actually use their full holiday entitlement).

What holiday care do people use for their kids if they are 12+ and they don't have family or friends who can take the kids?

Depending on the child you might not actually need holiday care for them at that age.

I remember when DD was starting at secondary I worried a bit about this and remember commenting to her friend's Mum that there seemed to be a gap in the market for childcare for this age group.

In the event by the time DD was 12-ish we were quite comfortable leaving her at home. Admittedly I only worked a mile from home so I could get back pretty quickly if required.

We are going to experiment leaving DS at home for an hour, then increase every week so by the time the summer holidays in year 7 come round he will be able to stay at home alone all day without worries

You need to focus on your annual childcare costs once they are at school i find rather than wind yourself up over the months where it is expensive.
My youngest goes to a club which is around £90 a week 8.30 to 5.30 and really enjoys it.i have paid a lot more for supercamps etc.

We've just started PGL for a week in the summer. It's not cheap but it means I can focus on work for a whole week and he has an ace time.
He hates Supercamps because no sports at ours - mostly making stuff.

I work 3 days a week. We have a childminder to do wraparound care those days and she does some holiday days too. Dh often takes days off too. He works long hours and accrues extra days off. My parents will do one day per holiday.

Dd is only in reception so it's all new to us but I have to say it's easier than I thought. There's a lot of clubs around for when she's a bit older.

I work from home a few hours a week but working with DS (3) around just doesn't work. Don't have family close by to help. So during preschool holidays its holiday club. There's only 3 in the area that take them at that age, none of which are ideal due to distance, cost and hours offered. Costs are more than I'd earn, but I don't really have an option if I want to have the job and just have to factor it in and save for long holidays. I'm better off in the long run work and paying for childcare in holidays than not working at all, so I just need to suck it up.

I cheat - I teach
Most schools offer wrap around care and holiday clubs.
Perhaps with you being part time you can offer a day for a day with some of your friends?
Can family help?
My preschooler is with a childminder at £32 a day

It truly is hard work and nothing fits perfectly I find!
My husband and I are civil servants so have generous annual leave and flexible working, and I work part-time. But even then we're only able to have christmas and a week in the summer off together, the rest of the yime we split the childcare between us. Don't have well or local enough family to help.

All the holidays we juggle within an inch of our lives. I work a few Fridays in term time to have the 'flexi' time off in holidays. I'm also lucky to be able to buy a week annual leave and spread the cost over the year. We also use a holiday scheme where they go for a few days in Easter and over the summer. I would love for them to not have to do this but alot of their friends attend too and it's a low key scheme not a structured one like Kingscamps, lots of nature walks, crafts, cooking and games, they seem to really enjoy it. We also occasionally do a swap with other children, but on an ad-hoc basis.
Oh and we pray they never get ill in term time, or any day but a Friday!!!

I have tried a variety of options. When my daughter was younger (yR to Y2) my work allowed me to vary my days so I did 3 full days instead of 5 shorter days. This made childcare easier and cheaper. For the holidays we often employed a holiday nanny, normally a uni student or a trainee teacher who had the holiday off. This worked well but is quite expensive. One year I shared with another family (that's worth exploring) However she often wanted to go and do things with school friends and this is the only way she could. As she had got older (now y7) we use holiday clubs, sports or activity clubs and stay away weeks with family. We try our best to take annual leave as a family so we get time all together. It does work I promise!