AIBU to wonder what you do with your children in school holidays whilst you’re at work?

[foxesandtoadstools]

My children are 7 and 10 and I was a stay at home parent for their first years and have now been working towards an Accounting degree and will be starting my final year in September. Which brings me to my question… this time next year I will be working full time and I have absolutely no idea what people do with their children in the school holidays! My partner works very long hours so can’t provide any support with this. My mum is local but I can hardly ask her to have them for a five week summer holiday (and the other eight or nine weeks off a year). So what should I be looking at in preparation? Summer camps? Do they even exist in half terms? We live on the Isle of Wight too to make things even more tricky as we don’t tend to have a lot of organisations for this sort of thing. I guess my other option would be a childminder, but I don’t know what age they even go up to? And how long do I need to be doing this before they can be at home while I’m at work? 13ish maybe?

I promise I am usually a pretty competent parent but I feel like I’m entering a completely foreign world where everyone else knows how it works but I’m in the dark!

Me and DH used to take two weeks off but only one week together so that would cover 3 of the weeks. I think we both worked shifts as well then which helped , then grandparents.

Childminder

Does camp Beaumont still exist on the IOW?! That was legendary.

Otherwise dig deep in your pockets for holiday activity type things. I remember one year when I had no other option and it cost me £3k for summer clubs which was probably more than I earned in the same period!

I’m taking advantage of parental leave, adoption drama club where I get to watch a ‘wonderful’ performance at the end of the week.

You take some holiday, their dad takes some holiday (however big and important his job is), you could ask your mum to have them for a day or two a week and the rest is holiday and sports camps.

I work term time only but round here a lot of the before/after school clubs run holidays clubs including half terms.

Wee share some annual leave looking after them.
Annual leave going on holiday
Holiday clubs at local schools
Grandparents for a few days
Kids activities do a camp

Mainly wood school but there are plenty of holiday clubs.

Out of our 7 week summer holiday I do roughly 4 weeks of clubs, 1 week grandparents , 2 weeks of family holiday.

The kids love it. Most prefer that to endless knocking around bored. We've done climbing, cycling, kayaking, music, sports, general clubs, drama.

Book it well in advance. Don't leave it to the last minute.

@bagamoyo1 NHS

It's awful.

I left an accounting and tax related field to retrain as a teacher, partly for this reason.

It gets worse as they get older. There is a gap between when they kick off about holiday programs and whan they are old enough to be left alone.

What do people do if they don't have hundreds of £s to spend on holidays clubs and family can't help?

Well, what do their friends generally do? I find it hard to believe that your dc have reached the age of 7 and 10 and you have absolutely no idea what people do with their children in the school holidays.

Doesn't matter how long your DH hours are, he'll still be entitled to annual leave so he absolutely CAN help.

Ds1 is 5, he'll be doing a couple of weeks of holiday club, a couple of weeks at DMs (only 3 day weeks as I work pt), and DH will take 2 weeks annual leave.

Everyone I know cobbles together a mix of holiday club, GPs/swaps with friends/and annual leave. If you use an Ofsted registered holiday club you should be able to use childcare vouchers/tax free childcare.

You can use childcare vouchers/tax free childcare scheme to pay for some holiday clubs and term time wraparound care.

It's worth checking in advance if any do this near you, and signing up for a scheme if you think this will be needed when you do start work.

Like other posters said
Plan well in advance, I used a combination of annual leave, parental leave (good old NHS), holiday clubs, grandparents and my sister. I was a single parent so their Dad took them for 1 week as well.
Agree that you probably have 5-6 years ahead of you before the older one can look after the younger one but even then holiday clubs would help. Also agree your DP needs to support you.
There were Easter holiday clubs where I live and also one year an Easter catch up school (I was not popular that year )

Both Dh and I take 3 weeks of leave, overlapping so we have 2 weeks family holiday together. 1 week ballet club and rest is child care from school where she normally go to as after school care. Ballet club is 100£, child care at school is 60£ a week in the summer school holiday. The rest of the school term holidays are covered in the monthly price we pay already.

I take annual leave, their dad takes annual leave so that’s 3-4 weeks covered.
Sports centre does sports clubs mon-friday 8-4
Family help out one or two days.
We really plan waaaay ahead, book places at clubs and get annual leave requests in early.
It’s a challenge every year.

Our summer holidays are mapped out by Easter every year. This year:

Wk 1 - holiday club at local school
Wk 2- family holiday
Wk 3 - I’m off
Wk 4 - gp house
Wk 5 - holiday club
Wk 6 - dp off

Have also done the odd play date swap with a friend to cover pesky tagged on inset days here and there

We do the same for all other school holidays. Holiday clubs more available during Easter, May & October half terms. DH and I barely get any leave together. A week in the summer and a few days at Christmas.

Colleagues of mine had success with summer au pairs. But you need to give them board and lodgings and transport to take the kids out etc. Ok if you live on good bus routes. Worked out very cheap and the kids found it cool they had a 18-19yr old for the summer to play with

Look at local sports centres, the holiday clubs are often cheaper than the ones run in school. Set up WhatsApp group with your kids’ parents, one group for each child, find out when and where friends are going. Can be really fun to go with a friend or two even if your kids are in different clubs some weeks.

Generally the holiday clubs are fantastic in my area, don’t feel guilty for a minute my dd can never wait to go back.

You pay for childcare. Usually a mix of childminders, holiday clubs etc.

Also: in the UK it's common to take around 5 weeks of annual leave, and quite common in accountancy and financial services to be allowed to buy an extra week.

By UK law your partner must be receiving at least 20 days of leave per year, unless he is self employed and is choosing to work constantly (I'd be a bit suspicious of someone who never ever took time off).

Many families only have a week or two off together and mum & dad split the rest to cover as much school holiday as possible, then use grandparents or arrange swaps with school friends or cousins to cover the rest.

The most important advice I would give is to sit down with your DH and say as you are now working how are the two of you going to manage childcare. He has to organise some of it. Make him responsible for 50% of the thinking and organising.

The goes for all the other things you used to do (cooking, cleaning, house admin, organising holidays, buying presents, looking after sick children etc etc)
It is going to be massive shift but just because those were your jobs you are now equally working. you've supported his career for year so his job has to come second for a bit.
I've see this play out many times and so often women are left doing every fucking thing.

I work in retail so always have one weekday day off each week and a day off at the weekend. So I take an extra day of annual leave each holiday week so I am with her 2 days a week, DM has her 3 and DH takes the 1 weekend day while I work.

Mixture of annual leave, summer camps and a bit of help from GParents.

Divide it up between your annual leave, your partner’s, grandparents and holiday club (which cost ££).