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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

If you work FT where are your children during half term/holidays?

80 replies

27dresses · 18/02/2019 20:50

I'm currently looking for full time work. I had DD (3) during university so I had no problems with childcare.

Just wondering where DD will go when it's the Easter/Summer and Xmas holidays. Do I need to fork out £££ to pay a childminder so I can continue to work?

OP posts:

anniehm · 18/02/2019 21:54

We used the ymca when ours were young because their holiday club was from 4, once they hit 8 we used the cheaper council one. Some jobs (eg public sector ) have their own schemes and we used civil service one a few times, we had to wait until all the civil service people had a chance to book then they let other public sector book

Fr3d · 18/02/2019 21:56

Pay £50+ per day for the summer holidays. Take annual leave if possible for shorter holidays. Just gotta be done.

insideoutsider · 18/02/2019 21:58

Single mom, no family or friends around to babysit, not enough annual leave to go round all 13 weeks of school holidays...

Mine go to a holiday club or sports club. The holiday club (run by a school about 3 miles away and is from 7.30 - 6pm (they go from 8 - 5.15) and the sports club is run by a nearby school from 9am - 3pm (they go for a change). They do so many activities and have day trips that they always have a fabulous time.

So, until they're old enough to stay home themselves, it'll be those options for us.

mogtheexcellent · 18/02/2019 21:58

Dd is in holiday club. She loves it. I save my holiday for emergencies and family holidays. Dd will probably be in holiday club for all but 4 weeks of the school holidays. Its 36 pounds a day so cost is a factor. I have to pay for childcare during term anyhow.

BackforGood · 18/02/2019 21:59

You've had almost 50 messages saying how people cope.

You have to not think of the cost of the holiday weeks as a 'stand alone cost'. You look at the cost across the year. You acknowledge it is an expensive time of your life. You adjust your spending in other areas to compensate. You are appreciative you live at a time when 30 hours a week of it is provided for free. If you are on a low income as a family, then you look into any way you can top up with benefits / tax credits etc.. It is a matter of juggling as everyone has said.

MinisterforCheekyFuckery · 18/02/2019 22:21

I do a job that I'm significantly over-qualified for and isn't well paid but has the advantage of being term-time only. I've turned down quite a few opportunities because they would have meant losing my school holidays off with the DC. With no family locally who are in a position to help it would be a massive struggle to cover the holidays and it would mean DH and I could never take time off together.

Tiredofit · 18/02/2019 22:25

I worked night shift and went to bed when dh came in at 5:30pm. I managed quite a few years of synchronised napping in the afternoons and once they were old enough to watch a film I could nap on the sofa. We tried to do an active every morning and crash out for the afternoon.

Muddysnowdrop · 18/02/2019 22:46

30 hours free during term time is amazing! You have a degree, you can get a job that will cover the rest. Obviously the more attractive the annual leave package the better!

CountFosco · 18/02/2019 22:57

We have no family nearby. When the eldest was preachool it was easy, nursery was open every day except over Christmas and Bank Holidays. Once they started scbool it was harder. Initially DH and I still worked PT so 40% of school holidays were covered, but now we both work FT but with a couple of short days each which is great in termtime (we do school drop off and pick up 4 days a week) but not so good in the holidays. We cover it with annual leave (most of which is not together, just a few days over Christmas plus a week's holiday in the summer), buying back all the holiday we could, unpaid parental leave, holiday club and about 5 days a year of childcare by the grandmothers.

BlitheringIdiots · 18/02/2019 23:06

Annual leave. Holiday clubs 8-6. Work from home day a week. On a wing and a prayer but 9 years in and it's working so far

AliTheMinx · 18/02/2019 23:11

DS is 7. In total he has 6 days off. I'm off for one, DH is off for two, MIL here for one, and he's in holiday club (£37 per day) for 2 days. My parents pay for the holiday club. Between us, DH and I don't have enough annual leave to cover all of the holidays, so holiday clubs are a godsend and DS loves going.

Namechange170518 · 18/02/2019 23:16

Mixture of annual leave, my mum and holiday clubs.

This half term my child has one day with Nana, one day with me and 3 days at holiday club (£12.50 per day)

WhatWouldTheDoctorDo · 18/02/2019 23:20

Mix of annual leave, holiday clubs, family. DH and I take some leave together and some separately.

Pre-school in private nursery, so available all year round. School based term time nursery just wasn't feasible. Childcare vouchers (now replaced with tax free childcare) helped with the costs.

UserUser123 · 18/02/2019 23:30

I’m lucky that I have an employer who allows employees to work part time, part year or both. I take 6 weeks a year unpaid leave (wages are averaged) and I use my 6 weeks annual leave on top of this to cover school holidays.

Mine also go to After School Care 2 days a week

DropZoneOne · 18/02/2019 23:52

Annual leave and holiday club. No parental help locally.

Before DD was at school she was ft nursery. That was actually a lot easier as they only closed 2 weeks a year. The hardest was reception as she was 4 and a lot of the holiday clubs only took from 5.

BrieAndChilli · 19/02/2019 00:04

DH gets quite a lot of holiday as he gets days back in lieu for being on call over bank holidays etc so ends up with about 35 days (+bank holidays) a year.
I then get 25 days (+ bank holidays)
Then 1 week of summer hols and 1 week easter hols they go to MILs in Devon.
The rest is a mishmash of school holiday club (££££ though and not many of the oldest ones friends attend), swooping days with friends eg I have my friends kids one day and she has mine another, an occasional day with FIL as he loves close but is either alway away on hi canal boat/travelling in Vietnam or just hibernating (he has ASD) so he’s normally an odd day or an evening babysitter.

It will depend on where you live - in a big city you will get a huge range of options such as Lego club, minecraft club, drama, science, various sports, etc etc
In our small town there is the leisure centre that runs a sports club (which none of mine are really into) or the individual schools runs clubs but ours is expensive and only does a couple of weeks of holidays a year.
Childminders are all completely booked up and generally only take siblings of the younger kids they already look after, none of the nursery’s take older kids.

BiddyPop · 19/02/2019 08:36

4 days sailing camp and then she will be helping me at the sailing club on the other side of the harbour preparing for a weekend event.

Between crèche, afterschool club running all day camps for such times, and sports or other camps as she got older, DD has always had an awful lot of her holidays in childcare settings as dh and I don’t have huge amounts of time to take off. We take a 2 week block for a family holiday in summer and some time over Christmas together. A lot of leve is needed for covering dd sick days and clinic appointments during the year. So camps it is.

BiddyPop · 19/02/2019 08:40

There is a lot of variety available nowadays - dd has done a wide range of sports (some she does regularly anyway, some just camps), art, science, cookery etc. she’s not into playing music or dance or drama but I know they’re available also. Multi sport camps are good fun when younger for the variety.

Yura · 19/02/2019 08:43

childminder. we hsve no family support at all, so always have to pay for childcare. £65 per child per day...

Sallycinnamum · 19/02/2019 08:44

Mix of child minder, holiday club and grandparents.

I WFH two days a week so I'll often take those as half days. The DC entertain themselves in the morning while I work and we do something together in the afternoon.

We always go on holiday during the may half term and take a week or 2 odd during the summer hols.

grasspigeons · 19/02/2019 08:45

I got a job in a school as DH company chose his annual leave (company shut downs at certain times) and he was abroad anyway, and youngest has SEN so the holiday clubs were not able to cope with him, or charged an additional £15 an hour on top for him to be miserable and not really take part in the club.

The eldest really enjoyed the holiday clubs though and I think he gets bored with me being around all the holidays and just having to do stuff with me.

Xenia · 19/02/2019 08:49

I was one reason we didn't use a nursery for our 3 under 5s ( we worked full time ) nad had someone come to the house to look after which meant when they went to nursery school and big school and in holidays the person minding the toddler and baby could also collect from school and look after the older one.

Once they were all at full time school one was at a school with a 2 week holiday club in the first fortnight of the summer which we used and for half terms we used to pay someone who collected from at 3 every day from school to do the extra hours

dameofdilemma · 19/02/2019 08:59

Have you also thought about what hours you're likely to be working, how long your commute might be and how that fits with the average school day (8.50am-3.10pm, say)?

Breakfast and afterschool club (to allow a 8am drop off and 5.45pm pick up) at dd's school costs nearly £20 a day. That's around £400 a month. In term time.
A CM might be cheaper than that but relies on availability and a location convenient to your commute.

Original poster

27dresses · 19/02/2019 10:12

Luckily DP has a 20 minute commute so he can do the drop off/pick ups if needs be.

Might have to do a rethink on jobs I'm applying for because I'm not sure I'll have a penny to spare after we've paid for extra childcare. FIL lives close by, but we don't want to take advantage of him- he has his own life.

I was looking at holiday camps. Camp Beaumont looks decent for 3 year olds. Wonder if DD will settle though :/

OP posts:

BriennetheBeauty · 19/02/2019 10:24

Mixture of Holiday Camps, Annual Leave - split with OH, parents (who don't live near) and the odd day of working from home.

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