How do working parents manage in the school holidays?

[ADJ1151]

Question says it all ^^

I have two Dc. Now my eldest is settled into full time school (she went part time for the first term) I need to start thinking about going back to work...

My husband works and earns a comfortable wage, we do manage quite well on his income but some extra income would be nice.

I’ve been looking at jobs in school hours and also the option of breakfast and after school clubs.

My two children have additional needs which makes it harder I think.

But how do you manage in the school holidays?

My Facebook newsfeed is full of parents asking if others can help out with their children during half term..

The school holidays will me my biggest hurdle. Like I say both my children have additional needs, family either can’t or don’t want to help out. I’ve never expected them to.

My children’s school don’t have a holiday club.

There are two childminders in the area but they are full.. and I would be concerned because they are both fairly new childminders and probably haven’t dealt with children with autism before.

If my husbands hours stayed the same every week I would work around that but they don’t. He is on alternating shift but does overtime etc as well. He tries to book all of his holiday in school holiday time but often with half term he doesn’t always get it off because there’s a lot of other people working there who also want it off..

Aibu to think it’s really bloody hard? With the added difficulty of both my children having autism... making finding childcare harder.

What’s the other options? Working from home? working term time only? (what kind of jobs, don’t want to work in the school)

Help?

Holiday clubs - at school, at different schools, at sports clubs, drama clubs....
flexi time
Occassionally, I’ll have some of the DC’s friends for the day, their parents return the favour.
Today, DM has them. She travelled 250 miles yesterday in terrible weather because DH and I both had work commitments we couldn’t really get out of (she’s a keeper ).

On the 4th day of school being closed because of the Beast from the East, DH took them into work and put DVDs on in a conference room. Told his staff to do the same (DH is a director).

I work 5 days in 4. Not working Mondays means that I am usually off on inset days.

MrsA2015 so why mention schools?

I am a lone parent. My 10 year old has been to a full day football camp all week (8.30 - 4.30). He has gone with a friend so we have lift shared - 5 trips each. Each one is over an hour round trip (the boys are keen footballers and this is a camp run by a football team and in the city).
It was £90 for the week.

I understand what mrsA means - I think she’s just saying why go to the stress of juggling childcare if you’re financially comfortable.

I thought the same myself tbh and this is why I don’t work either. It’s not worth it for how difficult it would be to find holiday childcare (Like op I have no family to help).

There are two childminders in the area but they are full.. and I would be concerned because they are both fairly new childminders and probably haven’t dealt with children with autism before.

What’s the other options? Working from home? working term time only? (what kind of jobs, don’t want to work in the school)

Become a childminder.

It depends how old they are. When they were young I bit the bummer and out the with a childminder or a nursery (they loved it). When they started to get a bit older I would do a mixture between sports clubs, usually between 9am & 3pm and child minder. My eldest is now able to stay at home on her own and my youngest still does the sports clubs etc. Plus myself, my dh and my ex (their Dad) all take time off work as holidays and I work from home some days which makes it easier.

Tbh I'd not rely on other Mum's or friends as it's not great for relationships with them or reliability

As a single parent with an ex who took the position that it was my fault for not getting a management level job, so I needed to experience the realities of simultaneously having ideas both above and below my station and he wouldn't be lowering himself to the level of a mere childcare worker for my benefit - I went to the GP with a sinus infection.

Once in the consulting room, he asked whether I was looking forward to the summer. Umm, not especially, as the only holiday club less than 3 times my pay wasn't served by public transport, meaning a two mile walk each night and all the childcare providers in the area, including them, were closed for the two weeks at the end of August/beginning of September, so I had absolutely no idea what I was going to do.

He then asked about my ongoing back pain. Meh, it's still there. Hopefully, I'd get the promised workstation assessment in September.

Lo and behold, at the end of the appointment 'Here's the steroid spray prescription. And here's a note for a bit of a break. You get full pay, don't you?' Three months.

I’ve managed to go back to work for the first time in 7 years and that’s only because I actually work 4-8am

It was hard going to begin with but I’ve gotten used to it.

So I work 4-8, then dh works 9.30-4.30

Clubs.

Annual leave and holiday club. Like others said it doesn't have to be at your school. Our school does have a holiday club which takes children from other schools. If you Google your town and holiday club lots will appear. There are so many holiday clubs where I live - not related to schools. There are several sports holiday clubs, arts and crafts holiday clubs etc. Too many to choose from.

What about temping? I worked with a woman whose husband worked abroad and her children were at boarding school. She worked term time only and was able to have the (extra long) holidays off.

I know someone mentioned childminder already but some kind of childcare provider might be a solution. My DD goes to a holiday club run out of the school but not run by them. They operate from 8.30 to 5.00 and offer sports, drama or art and craft. It looks like they use students of about 18 / 19 years old to run the various activities although the owner is always there. My DD also goes to a private breakfast club - I can drop her off at 07.30 and she gets breakfast and then gets walked to school. Obviously this is dependent on how close you are to the school but I think she has about 6 kids daily for about £6 a time but is done by 09.00 (and is term time only)

Holiday clubs. Ones near us are £35-45 per day, bit cheaper if you book the whole week, around £160. DC love them.
Or we take holiday time from work. But there are a lot of holidays to cover over the course of the year.
Other people I know are lucky enough to have family, usually grandparents, who look after the kids at least part of the holidays.

I haven’t been very clear but I meant setting up a holiday club / breakfast club not using them.

I think if you're not in desperate need of the money and anything will help, then maybe look at a part-time role?

Tbh though if you're not sure what your husband's shifts will be and you've got no one else to help I don't know how you'd hold down regular hours so it could be difficult.

We are in a fairly rural area too but holiday clubs can still be found! A local nursery runs a holiday club for school age kids, plus a local farm does activity days. Also check out any dance and gymnastics clubs, they often do holiday clubs and allow non members to join.
We can't get help from family so holidays are covered by us splitting our annual leave up - DH off Feb half term, I will do Oct half term, then we both are off May half term and two weeks in Summer. Also I work part time which makes things easier as we only have to cover half the week

Holiday clubs. That my daughter hates. Summer holidays are brutal in this house.
I also take unpaid parental leave.

We use annual leave (mainly taken separately), holiday clubs and the occasional day or half day with my SIL. There are a few holiday clubs here but you have to book them up quickly. We'll book Easter holidays as soon as this halfterm is over. My employer is flexible so I can work at home to make drop off and pick up easier as not all the clubs fit with our commuting and office hours.

I worked weekends for a free years when they were young. Then part time during the week. Had to use a mix of holiday, holiday clubs, swaps with others and occasional visits from grand parents who all live/lived a long way away.

All 3 of mine have additional needs. Over years I tried different holiday clubs. Eldest was ok but younger two were too much for most staff. Iv taken term option for work recently (been there 15 years) as just too stressful trying to find suitable childcare. I'm hoping as kids get older then they may be able to cope with childcare settings better

@MrsA2015 Could you explain how lack of funding at schools is relevant to this? As far as I understand holiday clubs have rules: ratio and limits how many children they could take, when they are full they are just full and parents take this into account when making their choices. No need for this emotional blackmail - no one is get entitlements to holiday club spaces: working parents or not. Parents of children with SEN might need them even more as respite or to deal with their other children.

OP, I’m in similar position as well, I have a child with additional needs (not autism) . I don’t work, we have no family or friends to send her even for an hour and she has EHCP and one to one at school. We couldn’t sent her to holiday club while at primary, it would be too much for this. Other parents is far as I know in similar position: one stays at home (it’s the most popular) /family helps/ juggle annual holidays/ one parent work only term time .

My employer allow me to work term time, however it's not a given, it's a rare luxury which they've made clear they may not always be able to accommodate.

It's tough, most of my colleagues rely heavily on family or work around their Dhs shifts, we don't have that option. Grandparent would help us for the odd day but not weeks at a time.

If I didn't work term time I'd have to use holiday clubs, it would be tough. They're expensive, they're not open all year round, closed at Christmas and Whitsun for example, they don't take under 5s or over 11s, they're not always open for a full day.

Sometimes dc don't want to go, although it can be good for them to keep them occupied, make friends, it can be tough and expensive keeping them entertained even when you're off.

Unpaid parental leave would be a last resort. If it came to it I'd try to find a bit of evening/weekend work, there's a lady in a local supermarket she literally works one evening shift and a Sunday.

Mine is fully flexi so I make up the hours by working some Saturdays in the run up to holidays. So handy

Most people I know manage holidays with a mixture of grandparents, play date swaps, childminder, taking annual leave shared with their partner and holiday clubs. It's not easy or cheap.

Clubs vary in quality and hours. 10am-3pm type clubs aren't much use if you're working 8-6. But if you find a good one that matches your child's interests, eg outdoor activities, trampolining, drama, they can be great. We love an outdoor one near us with climbing wall, kayaking, building fires and dens, etc. £35 per day per child.

I'm a teacher working as a higher level teaching assistant so I have the holidays off. It's a huge plus point and makes up for the crap pay as we don't need any childcare. My DH works away internationally quite a lot and we don't have family close by. I have a chronic illness though so I use holiday clubs for a day or two here and there to give me a break. The children get loads out of it. Great team building, confidence and resilience, fresh air and exercise.

I’m a SAHP because there is no alternative childcare provision during school/school holidays. We have no family living in this country so I rely entirely on friends to help out during emergencies.

We live rurally and there are no before or after school clubs here.
The kids camp activities during the summer are usually from around 10-2pm so you’d still need to be available to take them and collect them.

DH is retired (ill health) so we’re living on his pension. I’d like to work outside the home but DH doesn’t drive so I’m still needed to do the school runs.

Currently, I do a bit of hairdressing from home during school hours but not much because I don’t particularly enjoy it. I am thinking about renting a chair in a salon but I’d struggle to keep clients during the 10 week long summer holidays.

I used to live in the U.K. and DC were born there but sometimes circumstances change and you have to adapt.