Wfh kids holidays

[Bluevelvetcake2]

Hi

currently trying to work out our household budget for the coming years and as kids leave nursery and start school one potential expense will be holiday clubs. wondering whether we would need holiday clubs for all holiday weeks which we couldn’t cover with annual leave or if it would be ok to have them at home with us for a week in each holiday whilst we work from home. does anyone do this? thanks

I’ve just gone back to work and facing this. In half term DS is going to a camp which is £20 a day for 9-4pm. I won’t take much of a lunch break except to drop and pick up and will make up the hours that evening. Not ideal but my boss is understanding. My work day is 7.5 hours so hopefully just one hour to make up each evening, or at the crack of dawn.

My boss would be a lot less understanding if I didn’t have any childcare at all.

My friend doesn’t use childcare for her DD and she admits she gets very little done. I think she’s on thin ice at work because if it and her poor DD hates being told to be quiet all the time. They live in a flight away or I’d suggest childcare swaps.

I think it’s a real downside of the pandemic that women are even more than before being expected to fit their work into corners, rather than paying for childcare and being fully there for either work or their child at different times.

Ifs amazing how many women on here have husbands who work normal sociable hours whilst their fit theirs in late at night etc, or with a toddler underfoot. All in the name of flexibility.

Im not saying that’s you Op, but in general it’s a problem.

Agree 100%.

It's amazing how many women never switch off - never have downtime and sometimes don't even have sufficient sleep - since they're juggling a hundred things.

Meanwhile a lot of men seem to leave work and "need" hobbies or time to decompress free of childcare and household obligations and this is seen as reasonable.

It's a downside of the pandemic that "accepting" that people can wfh with children has become more the norm. Plus the cost of living increases has meant people are even more keen to save money where they can.

OP would not even have considered asking this question 4 years ago - she would have just booked her child into holiday clubs/sorted out childcare. Her employer would either rather she did this or doesn't care (if she gets work done). No suggestion that OP's partner thinks they should do this (and he'd get stuck with equally looking after children while wfh). OP is the only one putting pressure on herself to even consider this.

Really depends on their age and personality.

I wasn't an active kid, so would have been quite happy to read a pile of books, watch TV and play computer games. I would also have understood the concept of 'don't interrupt your parents unless the house is on fire.'

Plenty of younger relatives I know are more high-maintenance than that.

As an employer, it's a hard no, unless the kids are old enough to be reasonably independent. If they just need an adult to be in the same building in case of an emergency, that's fine. If you need to regularly check on them, feed them, care for them, etc - you need to be on leave. Your focus won't be on the job.

I sometimes work from home with family teens in the house. I don't interact with them except on my lunch break - they're quite content to do their own thing. The only reason why they're in my house is because there's an expectation an adult should be around at all times. If they needed me to actually supervise them, I wouldn't be able to work. As it stands, I'm just "there" in case.