AIBU to say that summer hols are a driver of inequality

[Teaandcrisps]

Myself and OH have had mixed personal fortune over the last 10 years - so from personal experience know the difference.

Summer holidays with no money is shit - especially when the weather is crap. If you can afford it however, it's great fun.

It's not just the obvious things - summer hols, trips, activities, camps, increase in food costs; it's also if you have the kind of job that can give you time off.

Given that food bank have launched the holiday hunger campaign, AIBU to say that summer holidays is an unequal construct and the 6-weeks off needs to go.

But you'd have to cover the same amount of holiday, and 2 weeks at October and May is more likely to be raining (disclaimer: British weather can change at any time) so how would it be any more equal?

The OP wants the holidays cut, not just rejigged.

Maybe if they cut school holidays they should cut annual leave in line with the schools reduction 😉 since you know too much time away is a bad thing you lose vital skills and l frankly being off costs you more.... No? just kids that should suffer from their parental choices yeah 🤨

I totally agree op. The 6 week break was linked to farming needs. Hardly relevant e.g.for inner London kids.

I think schools should only take two weeks off in the summer, and have two weeks either side of it with optional "play school" - like holiday day camps but free. Working parents wouldn't have to find 6 weeks of childcare, school dinners would continue, parents can send them or keep them home as they please. And kids still get a break from lessons and time to play with friends.

I think you’re both right and wrong. For people without much money or lack of alternative childcare the hols are really difficult to manage. And the ‘learning gap’ is a real thing - kids forget a big chunk of what they learned the previous year. Lucky children who get taken on interesting days out and get to do fun activities, go on fab family holidays where they do lots of activities- they learn lots in a fun ‘unlearning’ way. Kids whose parents are working and can’t afford childcare so they sit on their own all day in a city flat playing computer games - big learning gap. And it is cumulative, so by the end of school, children with equal ability may have very different outcomes just because of how they spent the school holidays. But the long summer break (quite short by international standards!) is a wonderful opportunity for many kids to just relax, have the pressure taken off them and just have time to play. So I think the wrong thing is a society where work is needlessly (in many cases) inflexible, housing costs are unmanageably high for many, good quality childcare is unaffordable for many, where there are families relying on school for basics like feeding their child with a free school dinner, and where trips to the park or a museum or the cinema are luxuries beyond their grasp, where local libraries are gone and free council run activities are from 10am to 1pm if they exist at all. All of our children would benefit from a society that cared more about children.

You're confusing symptoms and drivers. It's a symptom.

I was the deprived child in a hot country with two parents who didn't work. We had 3 months in the summer and it was miserable as sin.

We lived in a city and it was too hot in the day to go out. Most things shut down as in August the city was deserted. We didn't have money to go to the beach as it was a 40 mile journey and we sometimes got shipped off to random neighbours who took pity on us. It was an absolutely miserable life.

The council did offer free holidays and we went once. Not sure why we didn't go before or after that one time but I think it was because my parents didn't know about it or couldn't be bothered or maybe it was scrapped.

As a child living in deprivation that was the only holiday I ever enjoyed. Being shipped to distant neighbours and friends was even more miserable than being at home.

The summer holidays are far too long.
Max 4 weeks is more than enough. There are plenty of other holidays throughout the year & these days, most parents work and struggle with childcare

most parents work and struggle with childcare

So the issue is childcare, that's what needs sorted.

No a complete rejig of the education system because some people can't afford childcare. That's punishing children by pushing them into more education (when they already start too early as it is) because the adults running the country can't deal with the issues at hand.

But the children still have the same amount of holiday regardless of how it is split up so childcare and getting holiday off work would still be an issue for most. If most people only get 5 weeks holiday a year!

Agree school isn't a childcare facility and it is there to educate children.

Issues of poverty and inequality need looking at. Also I think our expectations of what we should be doing with our kids in the summer holidays have increased.

Purely in terms of child care, I think the issue is not only the length of the summer holiday but the total amount of time during the year. I think it’s generally 12-13 weeks. If both parents are working and an average job has 4-5 weeks annual leave, it is simply impossible for the parents to cover the children‘s time off without outside help, whether it’s formal childcare or spending time with relatives etc, even if they never take time off together
I don’t think that that can be good for the parents’ relationship which could obviously have an impact on the children. It could also be a disincentive for some parents who would like to work

Ours seem to have gone on forever- one early secondary had an extra week before the holidays (they always do this) now the primary has inset days this week so still going on. So nearly 8 weeks in total.

Ican honestly say we dont have much money but I wouldnt change the holidays when I can spend quality time with my son. He also needs a rest from education it can be tiring for kids. Even if I had tovisit a food bank, which I have at one point I wouldnt change time with my son, you dont newd money to wnjoy youeself, m Yvonne son loves walks, parks and playing in the garden, he likes gardening and we have the odd day out when we can afford it. But he once told his teacher the best part of the holidays was playing board games and spending time with mum n dad.

I'm a single parent relying on benefits and my DC and I have had the most amazing summer and none of us were ready to go back. We've been out and about loads but when we weren't they were outdoors, unsupervised, playing with the neighbours children which is probably more valuable than all the arranged summer activities in the world in this day and age.

What about the dc who visit family abroad in the Summer.

People would take their dc during term time if this happened.

There needs to be subsided holiday clubs possibly but not longer terms in schools.

NINE weeks here. There are pros and cons but school based summer schemes would be very welcome, the kids miss their classmates.

I don't have childcare issues but it is not good for a teenager to spend 9 hours a day, 6 weeks at a time with 1 person (me) and most of that time at home because there are no facilities for people with his needs.

I don't think it matters whether it's the summer holidays or not. The children of wealthy families have a far greater advantage over others all year round.

What drives inequality is the same as it has always been. Money - or lack thereof.

when i was a kid we went outside and played kirby and achie 123 and hide and seek went for walks down by the river with a picnic that probably only cost my mum a fiver in kwiksave we went to the park and we had a season ticket for the swimming pool and played on the grass field at the pool. my mum wrote maths problems on some lined printer paper my uncle got given from work and we practised our hand writing my mum brought us books from the charity shops to practice our reading. i deffinatly dont come from a high income background my mum was a single mother living on a shoe string. our first holiday was to barmouth in a caravan on the sea front and i was 16 at the time we had a few day trips cheap ones the church put on for all the kids mostly funded by the proceeds from the villiage charity shop and the big trip they did was to drayton manor with a chippie tea on the bus on the way home. i LOVED the summer holidays. it doesnt have to cost the earth to keep them educated and entertained during the holidays and i agree the childcare issue is the same whatever time of the year they place the holidays the amount of annual leave you need per year would still be the same

But the children still have the same amount of holiday regardless of how it is split up so childcare and getting holiday off work would still be an issue for most. If most people only get 5 weeks holiday a year!

I believe it has been clarified once or twice already, but the OP is not suggesting moving the holidays around but substantial reducing them.

My DS is 12 & from next year will be too old for the holiday club yet too young to be left home alone while I have to work (& how bored & lonely would he be while DD still at holiday club). I am surprised there isn’t more affordable provision for holiday clubs, up to 16 year olds, as most parents must still need to work in the holidays. What do parents do with their 12-16 year olds who are too old for clubs but too young to be left home alone?

Can I ask those advocating cutting the holidays where they think the money is going to come from?

Surely if we can find and extra ) hundred million for this it would be better targeted at working families below the poverty line in a more specific way. Rather than just hoping having the kids at school will save them.

I think what they do mummybee is leave them home alone. They can always do swimming/football with friends etc. Our library has some clubs for older teens, they are on for an hour or two though not all day.

I’m a single mum and am lucky I was able to get 2 weeks leave approved in August, the rest of the summer I have paid extortionate amounts of money for my kids to be bored in holiday clubs, or they have sat in the family business, also bored.... aside from teachers, who else gets long enjoyable summers with their children? I now can’t have a week off until April as have used all my leave apart from 2 days in October and 2 days at Xmas. If I couldn’t afford childcare (which I barely can) I don’t know what I would do over the summer tbh

The 6 week break was linked to farming needs. Hardly relevant e.g.for inner London kids.

There is scant evidence to support this. Harvest is always August/September and by 1870 when schooling was formally introduced for all, much of the farming industry was industrialised. The research I have seen suggests that children were given holidays off because experts believed that schoolrooms in the hot summer were hot, cramped and unpleasant and they needed a long rest!

If you have a problem with childcare, that is what needs to be looked at. Not simply forcing state school children (and let’s face it, it is only state school kids—- such plans will NEVER be considered for private school children) to lose large chunks of their holiday.