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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To wonder how you cover school holidays with no family?

274 replies

LivingMyBestLie · 04/10/2022 18:43

There are around 14 weeks of school holidays per year and I have three children (two primary school age, one 1yr old).

AIBU to think it's impossible to cover school holidays with no family childcare?!

For reference my partner gets 30 days annual leave a year, I get 15 (pro rata). I work 3 days per week.

Please tell me how you do it!?

OP posts:
ChocolateChipMuffin2016 · 04/10/2022 20:18

We are also in the south east, my DS is 6, we use a combination of holiday cover from work and our DD’s childminder, which is £67.50 per day. I also only work 3 days a week. I save every month in the government tax account to cover the holidays. It’s annoying but it’s just the way it is!

Willyoujustbequiet · 04/10/2022 20:18

You're better off than thousands of single parents in the same situation.

TheLoupGarou · 04/10/2022 20:19

Mine usually like holiday clubs, depending on what it is. But even if they hated it they would still have to suck it up and go! There are 3 of them so strength in numbers and we try to coordinate with friends/school friends.

Christmasfun2022 · 04/10/2022 20:20

We will have this issue for the first time next summer. I need to sit down and work it out properly, but it will be a combination of sharing annual leave with DH, holiday clubs. Also we both sometimes work from home so imagine we will have the odd day where we supervise them at home, while we work. Due to the flexibility of working from home I imagine inwill be able to sign DD up to some of the cheaper holiday clubs that end at 3.30 and make up the 1.5 hours when she’s in bed or something. Where we live (in the north) we are actually spoilt for choice in terms of holiday clubs - dance, gymnastics, sports, etc and normally around £25 per day - cheaper then nursery! In laws lives 2 hours away and did offer a while ago to come and stay in the holidays to look after them. I would rather fork out money for childcare than have MIL stay here for weeks at a time every summer if I’m honest 🤷‍♀️🙈. But there’s that if we are desperate…

mindutopia · 04/10/2022 20:20

But really if you have 45 AL days a year, divided by 14 weeks, that’s 3 days a week for each of the 14 weeks. You are off the other 2 days, so should be easily covered. One/both of you can also take a week or 2 of parental leave as necessary.

And no, personally, I wouldn’t take a term time only job unless you are a low earner. It’s better to bank more AL and pension and have a higher salary and be able to choose between you how you spread your time off so you both do some of the childcare and have more flexibility.

Bellsbeachwaves · 04/10/2022 20:20

I'd work part time all year. Pension. Earning power. Mortgage capacity. Just in case you get divorced. Not very cheery I know sorry!

Wibbli · 04/10/2022 20:21

I’m grateful to have my dad and I work part time hours (6 hours per day) so I can do school drop off and collection. If it wasn’t for my dad, I don’t know what I would do

TheLoupGarou · 04/10/2022 20:22

When my kids were younger we just used regular childminder for my working days and didn't bother with summer schemes.

Tomorrowisalatterday · 04/10/2022 20:22

Maybe I am just a horrible parent but I would hate to work term time only and never have any time that wasn't working or looking after the kids.

Husbandintheroom · 04/10/2022 20:23

Erm holiday clubs and each taking annual leave in opposite days to limit cost of said clubs. Then try to find 1 week of leave to take all together, it’s common sense sorry.

DuckBilledFattypus · 04/10/2022 20:24

I was a single parent and only had one set of my own holiday to use. I had to pay for holiday club. I found the council run ones were often a lot cheaper than private companies. Sometimes schools run them as well. You can stack the cost of this against getting a temp private nanny. For two or more children it can sometimes work out cheaper. I didn't have much money during holiday time, it all went on child care and living costs, but at least I kept my career. Now kids are older I can leave them at home / they organise their own stuff with friends. But the early years were a challenge.

Queuesarasarah · 04/10/2022 20:25

Tomorrowisalatterday · 04/10/2022 20:22

Maybe I am just a horrible parent but I would hate to work term time only and never have any time that wasn't working or looking after the kids.

Surely that’s true for most parents? Even if you’re working all year round, you’ll be using your annual leave to look after your kids.

Riverlee · 04/10/2022 20:27

Dh and I used to take a week off each during the summer, plus a week family holiday, and then holiday camps - football, local leisure centre, tennis etc.

NeedAHoliday2021 · 04/10/2022 20:28

Dh and I used to only get one week of annual leave together then dc would be in holiday clubs and cm. It’s expensive but not forever. Dd is now 14 and dtds are 11 and they can stay home a bit now (dh now works from home too which makes a difference but that’s only since 2019).

YetAnotherNameChange52 · 04/10/2022 20:28

When the kids were little we used nearly all of our annual leave on holidays (both of us work FT) plus holiday clubs, plus we had a couple of families that we were friendly with and swapped childcare with. It was always touch and go though, it's not easy!

Queuesarasarah · 04/10/2022 20:28

Bellsbeachwaves · 04/10/2022 20:20

I'd work part time all year. Pension. Earning power. Mortgage capacity. Just in case you get divorced. Not very cheery I know sorry!

I earn more term time only than I would in this set up. Depends on the exact circumstances, but term time is just a form of part time. It doesn’t inherently mean you have less pension than someone else working part time. As for the pensions, I don’t work for a school, but actually one of the few perks are local government pensions which are far better than my ‘good’ workplace pension.

Solonge · 04/10/2022 20:29

Consider an au pair. The only way I managed to work when husband had a sixty hour a week job and I was working nights and evenings as a nurse.

OgdensGoneNutFlake · 04/10/2022 20:30

I've just taken a drop in salary for a new job that's term time only , because it worked out we'd be better off than than paying the childcare.

NeedAHoliday2021 · 04/10/2022 20:30

Oh and I had a colour coded spreadsheet.

FLOWER1982 · 04/10/2022 20:30

Holiday clubs

feministqueen · 04/10/2022 20:30

I have 2 children in school and i work 4 days a week during term time and 3 days a week during holidays.

It works really well because i always have Monday's off and during holidays take either a Tuesday or a Friday which gives a nice long weekend also. My husband can take a couple of days off and we use holiday club a little too.

Check out your local leisure centre and any dance schools/football academies. They often run summer school weeks. The dance theatre near us runs a 5 day 9-3 week where the kids practice a play and build the set and then put on a show at the end of the week. It's about £90 for the week per child

TheYearOfSmallThings · 04/10/2022 20:31

Holiday club - 8am to 6pm, £25 per day.

Tomorrowisalatterday · 04/10/2022 20:31

Queuesarasarah · 04/10/2022 20:25

Surely that’s true for most parents? Even if you’re working all year round, you’ll be using your annual leave to look after your kids.

Show quote history

I take 2-3 days off a year to do stuff on my own. I love it!

BalmyBalmes · 04/10/2022 20:31

When mine were younger we used Childminder then holiday club.
I'm part time which helps.

Some employers allow compressed hours so if your full time you may be able to work all your hours in 4 days in school holidays. If your DH did likewise you'd only need to cover 3 days

ancientgran · 04/10/2022 20:37

Years ago but when mine were young I sort of teamed up with 2 other families in the road where I lived. One had a son the same age as my first son the other family had a son the same age as my younger one, we all had 2 kids. I worked fulltime but DH had a day off midweek as he worked Saturdays, one of the other mums worked part time and one of her days was Saturday, the other mum worked part time.

One of the others took mine to school, my husband picked them up on his day off, they got picked up by other mothers on the other 4 days but they only them for an hour as I'd be home by 4.30. I had them all on Saturdays and they all did swimming lessons on Saturdays. In school holidays we sort of muddled through, a couple of summers the kids all went off on holiday for 6 weeks, 2 weeks with each family. So kids went camping with one family, got back on the Friday and they came with us to Devon for two weeks in a caravan, again we came back on the Friday and on the Saturday they went back down the M5 to Cornwall. The two weeks away with between 4 and six kids was exhausting but then we all got 4 weeks with no childcare issues.

One thing that made it easier was the school gates opened at 8 am and the boys were all happy to be there playing football before school so the mum dropping them off had time to get to work. Schools would allow that now.

It is all exhausting.