To wonder what working parents are meant to do in school holidays?

[StepAwayFromGoogle]

DD1 starts school in September. DP and I both work because we can't afford for either one of us to be off. I have applied for part time but my work have been spectacularly backward and refused point blank, which is a whole other thread. I am looking for another job but work in a very specific field in a very specific industry so it's not looking likely that I'll get something, much less part time.
DD1 school have a before and after school club which is over subscribed so she won't get in for the first year. We have scrabbled around and managed to cover the week with GPs and a childminder.
So on to the holidays. DD1 will have 13 weeks off school a year. Between us, me and DP will have just under 10 weeks holiday. AIBU to think that if the govt wants parents (particularly mothers) to work then there needs to be better holiday provision? I'm not blindingly sure what working parents are expected to do after 3pm every day and for the 13 weeks children are off in the year. At the moment all our holiday days will be spent covering time off school and we won't be able to have a holiday together as a family.

School is not childcare. When you have children you either need to have a parent give up work to care for them when they are not at school or else you need to make arrangements for other adults to take care of them and to pay for this.

Getting a student who is on holiday from university to look after your children in the school holidays is a great idea as it is more relaxing for your children than constant holiday clubs (which have their place).

I understand what the OP means. It wasn’t so long ago one persons average salary would cover all the bills so the second income wasn’t essential in the way it is today. Parents would be home looking after their children and no reliant on others in the way it is now.

When I had my first child (20 years ago) the support system was set up so single mothers could stay on IS until their child was 12 and going to secondary school. Now they expect single parents to be looking to work when their child is still a baby! That is a huge shift over a short space of time without the shift in other areas to make working and childcare easy.

It’s quite clear that the government doesn’t place value on providers of childcare by their low funding rates and thereby keeping the employees in this area on wages so low they can’t afford childcare themselves without help!

Don't forget that you won't automatically get every school holiday off. Especially in the summer. Your colleague with grown-up or no children also like to go away in the summer. Same for Xmas too.

What has what goes on in European countries got to do with it? We’ve kind of burnt our bridges with that one.

Sorry that wasn't clear. I realise MPs and tax dodgers are real people. I mean people who actually need help not entitled twats.

One of the few perks of being a teacher, in the same LA as my DCs.

Also, surely if British people aren't spending all their money on childcare then that would boost business and the economy in the UK?

Childcare is a vibrant economy boosting industry! You do realise the government loves the childcare industry?

What has what goes on in European countries got to do with it? We’ve kind of burnt our bridges with that one.

Yes you're right. We are now blind and can no longer see Europe.

Childcare in most European countries is heavily subsidised.

Yes, we know that. I’m asking what should happen here in the UK and what solutions anyone has.

Well, I suggested the answer is to pay more tax, which involves voting for a party which supports higher taxation and lobbying MPs, political parties to include subsidised childcare as part of their manifestos.

Why are you so disgusted at the though of the government helping ordinary working people?

“Disgusted”? Where did you get that from?

We all know who in theory should fund this. What I’m asking - which you’d know if you’d read my posts - is how will that be put into practice?

Going round in circles saying the government should do this and that with no proposals for achieving it is pointless.

Well, I suggested the answer is to pay more tax, which involves voting for a party which supports higher taxation and lobbying MPs, political parties to include subsidised childcare as part of their manifestos.

Or use the tax they already get more appropriately.

This must vary from area to area. I've almost got the opposite problem because the holiday clubs in our area are so good, and cheap, and varied - there's football clubs, dance clubs, arts clubs, everything else clubs - but I cant justify my dc going to them, as I work term time only, so they're a bit jealous of their friends who get to go!

If there's none in your area, and demand is high, then I would grab the opportunity with both hands, to switch careers and set up a new own business as a holiday club.

OP check with all the local primary schools. Not just the one your DC will attend.

Our junior school offers mornings at £2 an activity session before school. Our infants school does the after school care and holiday clubs.

Get onto your Council’s Family Information Service and see what you can dig up.

These things probably exist but you have to go and search them out.

I think the OP is getting a hard time because to most of us it’s really no surprise and we’ve all managed somehow or another to get by.

Thank you dippy.

Good solutions.

What has what goes on in European countries got to do with it? We’ve kind of burnt our bridges with that one.

It is about looking at how other models around the world work and seeing how they could be introduced here. I'm a passionate remainer but our membership of the EU has sod all to do with UK government policy on childcare. There are many different models of subsidised childcare throughout Europe, each decided by national governments.

There was a proposal a few years ago to make childcare cheaper but by reducing adult to child ratios, not bringing in any subsidies.

Blimey £800 pcm, I have to live off that!

Local authorities offer very low cost holiday clubs, and there are plenty of private options if your budget is a bit bigger.

I rather think the problem is that actually there aren't. Sure, in some places. Not everywhere. And our local authority does some amazing, subsidised stuff, which plenty don't, but it's 9-3. Not a great deal of use to two full time working households. I might actually send mine to some of it in the summer, but I'll be able to do that because we aren't a 2 x FT working household and we have family locally.

The reality is that in many areas, provision is very patchy. Need doesn't necessarily meet demand. And the landscape has changed so much over the past few years that talking about planning it is nonsense really. You can plan all you like to use the local authority provision, but if there's been cuts in the past 5 years and it's not there, you're stuck.

Or use the tax they already get more appropriately.

Whose definition of “appropriately” do you use? We’re back to which budget should be cut to pay for it.

This is why I stay in a job I have outgrown because they allow me to work three days a week, have two extra weeks unpaid leave a year (so I have 8 weeks hol a year plus bank holidays). I couldn’t work anymore days as I would have more holiday time to find cover for.
My husband does condensed hours so he has a weekday off that I work so we rely on grandparents for the other two days a week.
I save annual leave by going into work on the days he’s at work so I have enough leave to cover almost all of the holidays.

If we didn’t have grandparents we would use the holiday clubs but they’re only 10-3!

In my view there is not much point having a government if they cannot make policies to help people thrive economically.
They want people to work...so make it easier for them.
Government policy does matter. This" your kid, your responsibility" is very darwinian dog eat dog stuff. The government has a duty to help childcare providers thrive. Tbh i think it does quite a good job at this as there are plenty of options.
Scandinavia have the answer.

You are, by law, allowed to take X amount of time as leave per year per child. It is unpaid but it amounts to quite a bit. Look it up on Gov website.

It’s the logistics that are difficult, particularly in the first year after a first born starts school because it’s all so new. Before school it’s easier. You find a childminder who has space, book them in for X hours every week, plus you get a bit of help from gov to help cover costs.

Once your child starts school then you lose your space with the childminder. Instead of only needing one person to care for your child you then need to sort out who is going to have them before school, will they drop them off at the school gates, who will pick them up, who will look after them from 3-6. And that’s just term time.

We all know that this is what we all have to do, but can we at least agree that logistically it’s more of a nightmare once they’ve started school than it is before school, and refrain from the ‘I have to do it, so do you. Suck it up’ attitude.

OP, I get what you’re saying. There is no childcare locally that will take kids before 7:30, and husband and I are both shift workers. Throw into the mix a bit of autism and childcare just isn’t an option even if it existed. We’ve both reduced our hours massively so that we can look after the kids. If work hadn’t allowed this then I think one of us would have to have given up work. Financially that wouldn’t put us in a much different position to now, but at least we are contributing to our pension whilst in work.

Perhaps we could actually tackle some of the tax evasion and recoup the missing taxes rich people & companies are skipping out on? Ridiculous to say its nothing to do with the govt.

In the meantime OP, we carried over a few days leave from the year before to help with the summer born holiday club problem, also took a couple of weeks parental leave. If you were thinking of going part-time then you can probably budget for a week or two of parental leave. Then holiday club when he was old enough.

Luckily we live in a city so loads of holiday clubs with 8-6 coverage. But was also able to work from home occasionally to cover a shorter holiday club day - is that possible for you? Means sticking kids in front of TV for two hours & not booking meetings (or having tolerance for meetings being interrupted by requests for food etc).

This must vary from area to area. I've almost got the opposite problem because the holiday clubs in our area are so good, and cheap, and varied - there's football clubs, dance clubs, arts clubs, everything else clubs - but I cant justify my dc going to them, as I work term time only, so they're a bit jealous of their friends who get to go!

We have these round here too, but they often only operate from 9/10am until 3pm, which still causes a problem for many working parents.

I don't know OP. I'd like to go back to work eventually but sometimes feel I'd need to wait until secondary school when you can leave them on their own for the summer