to Feel frustrated about not being able to progress at work...

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Feeling quite shit right now. I’m desperate to apply for a job where I work. It would mean more money, and excellent step to establishing a career. I have the right experience, have been here for the right amount of time to get the job. I work in the evenings at the moment and this job would mean getting back into day work (nhs).

I’ve just worked out how much it would cost for breakfast and after school club for 3 kids 2 days a week. All good. It would work out ok.

Then I remember school holidays. My dh works long hours and commutes. I have no one to help me with the kids. We couldn’t afford to send them to clubs as it would cost over £2000 for 3 of them for a week.

I’ve tried to think how we could make it work, but it just wouldn’t because the school holidays would drain us. Tax credits don’t help anymore either. So I’m left in an ok job I do in the evenings but unable to progress.

I might apply and ask for part time term time only. Doubt they’ll accept but I’m so sick of just being a mum for the past 11 years.

Anyone with any helpful advice?

Sorry for the essay .

You’ll get holidays, so can you and your husband arrange your holidays to cover at least some of the school holidays?

Can you split the cost of holiday club across the year? My kids don’t go to holiday club but I know that at least one holiday club near us allows this.

Go see your HR group
Ask them what options they have available
Be respectful and don’t demand but enquire as to any avenues / programs they have to help working families during vacations period (for example leave without pay)
If you are in the U.K., isn’t there 13 weeks parental allowance (sorry don’t know specifics - been a while since I lived there)
Some options or flexibility combined with your husband doing same might help

Can your Dh take some additional leave say 3 weeks. You take 2 for a couple of years until you can leave the children unsupervised in the day eldest can't be too far off not needing any childcare.

I’ve already checked and the clubs near us all require upfront payment. So you book and pay. There’s only one local to us.

I think we could organise holidays like that. Dh also does shift work I think he could take his 2 Rest days off during a half term weekday and start a late shift and I could get the same time off.

But then longer holidays would be a problem. Definitely could take 3 and 3 weeks for summer holidays. Still left with Easter and Christmas, which would be a problem.

Oh it feels good to talk this through with some other heads. Not sure about the unpaid leave, I’d have to look that up. I thought it was only for emergencies.

My eldest is 10 (soon 11) I have a 6 and 4 year old aswell. Still have a long time before I can leave them on their own.

Could it work though? Should I apply and talk about this at the interview, because I did a similar thing with this job and they gave me evening hours to suit my needs.

£2000 for a weeks childcare during holidays seems way too expensive to me.

I pay £25 a day for holiday club so for 1 week would be )125 - £375 for 3.

You could get childcare vouchers which splits cost across the year and can still be used for holiday clubs.

You will have holidays to take too.

Are you sure you have your figures correct ?

Agree 2000 for a week is very expensive are you sure this is correct

Definitely apply and you can work things out if/when you get an offer.

Not helpful but is holiday club really that much? Around here holiday clubs are c £30 and can get sibling discounts - is there really only one near you?

Could they go to stay with grandparents/other relatives for a week here and there?
Do they have friends at school you could share holiday cover with - ie You look after their friends for 2/3 days of the hols, then they go to their friends for 2/3 days?

Don’t forget that you can use childcare vouchers to pay for holiday clubs so if you/your husband (or even better both of you) can sign up through work you can build up the vouchers every month (they’re taken from pre tax pay so can save c£80 month in tax) and then use them to pay for clubs. So you can spread the cost across the year, the balance stays in your voucher account for you to use in the holidays.

Definitely apply, I think you can work this out!

Would a childminder not be way more affordable than clubs?

Ok went and had a look again, it’s around £550 for 1 week for 3 children. Don’t know where I got £2000 from! I think it would be £2000 for 4 weeks for 3 children. I think if they went to holiday club for 1 week during summer holidays, we could still overlap a week to have some family time too.

I’ve never been able to figure out childcare vouchers. Is there some kind of calculator where I can work out how much I could potentially get back?

Thanks all for the advice! I’m feeling a bit less frustrated.

There’s a few places round here that do free holiday clubs (churches, Salvation Army and the like). They’re not all day 8 - 6 but they might be workable if you had something like that?

How many weeks holiday do you both get. Me and dh get just over 6 weeks each. School hols is usually 13 weeks. If you take it turns to book the half terms off then each h take two weeks in the summer but overlap one week for holiday together that only leaves you 3 weeks. Then you either mix your shifts so you work back to back with DH, or you get grandparents over for a few days, or you swap with other parents, or you use holiday clubs.