Holiday care

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Aibu to be panicking about holiday care already?

My child isn’t at school until next year but I started looking at my local options and I’m now having a bit of a panic as:

1. they all seem to be far shorter hours than nursery eg 8-4 or 8.30-5 (with the exception of summer holidays where 8-6 does seem possible) and
2. don’t seem to take children until 5 which is incredibly unhelpful for a summer born reception child like mine.

Added to the above, my child’s school will also do staggered start and half days for 3 weeks so a lot of our leave and favours will be gone before she’s actually started properly.

I always knew school holidays would be hard to manage but reception year seems extra hard and I just had no idea she wouldn’t be able to access a lot of holiday camps until 5. Are there any useful mumsnet tips for managing?

You need a school with holiday club attached! If not, you’ll have to call in parents, favours, holiday childminders, local reliable teens, whatever works. Can one or both of you get flexible hours to cover either end of the day? Are you both full time?

It’s short lived. Feels ages but that first year flies by.

Round here there are a couple of nurseries that offer preschool children term time only places then school children up to age 8 I think holiday care. Try asking on a local facebook site for what others in the area do.

Lots of clubs near me don't take them until 6. And some of them the take from 5 I wouldn't want him to go to. The first year is the hardest. How do most people manage? Change their hours, share care with friends, or get grandparents to do a significant chunk. I know some people on here say they don't want to stay and chat because they have friends already, but if you don't have friends who will do childcare for your kids, then you need to make some.

It is worth considering using a childminder, rather than the school before/after school care for your wrap around care as most will take children in the school holidays if you are already one of their mindees.

We're in a similar boat with the settling in thing. We're both teachers so can't take time off in Sept for 2 or 3 weeks of half days (at least the holidays are okay as long as they're the same as ours!). No family around and all our friends also work full time.

Has your child been in nursery or with a CM for full days at all? Ours has since 9 months and I'm hoping to put in a request for full time school from day 1 (he's definitely used to it!) as otherwise we have literally no choice other than for one of us to give up work.

At the moment, even just getting to visit schools to look round is an issue, as they all just have open days, we're not allowed time off during term time, and by the time we can get to any of our local schools, they've long since closed.

Teaching is not a child-friendly profession!