To wonder how you cover school holidays with no family?

[LivingMyBestLie]

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!?

I pay a very nice childminder 😁

We only get one week a year when we are both off together. For the rest of the time, annual leave or we pay for childcare.

We were in the same situation (until working from home). We had to pool our annual leave together to cover school holidays and then pay for holiday clubs for the rest of the time. It's insane how much time off school they have. Inset days are also a pain in the ass to cover! I now have a fulltime remote contract and it has made such a difference. Its not ideal having to send them upstairs with various activities but it costs nothing and it doesn't eat into my holiday time.

Holiday clubs are around £30 per day in south east. You should apply for ‘tax free childcare’ which means you save 20% on the fees. Plus they often do a sibling discount. My kids love holiday club.

We paid for childcare for the weeks we couldn’t cover with AL. We had no home working back then (kids now 18 and 14). Yes it cost a fortune. Childcare stopped at 11, they became latch key kids then!

Unpaid parental leave, 18 weeks per child until their 18th birthday. I use a bit every year
www.gov.uk/parental-leave

Your partner gets 30 days, which covers ten of your working weeks. That means he has three days spare, so you can all go away for a long weekend.

I don't understand this math, isn't 30 days leave 6 weeks holiday? That leaves a 3 week gap

Unpaid parental leave, 18 weeks per child until their 18th birthday. I use a bit every year
www.gov.uk/parental-leave

Combo of annual leave, holiday clubs, unpaid parental leave and a bit of family help.

Yes, I've got a colour coded spreadsheet like a poster up thread 😄

@Dreamwhisper OP works a 3 day week, so her partner can cover 10 weeks of required childcare with 30 days of leave.

Personally, a term-time (plus inset days) job. I paid a retainer to my childminder but didn't send my 2 in the holidays, so like a lot of other childminders she would take on holiday-only children whose parents needed holiday care.

Op only works 3 days a week,.

We split Christmas and Easter and two of the half terms between us. The other half term is a holiday camp.

For the summer, we do one week each, one week family holiday, and then join forces with another family to cover pick up and drop offs at holiday clubs for the remaining 3 weeks.

Childminder?

i charge £30 a day for school age kids in the holidays. Includes food drink and we go out everyday. Admittedly free places with National trust and English heritage memberships and we take a picnic! We have loads of fun and the children really enjoy it.

definitely look at local childminders

Split our holiday to cover some and holiday club for the rest.. it's not a fancy activity camp, it's a basic childcare provision and costs around £30 per day.

We pay for holiday clubs, roughly 9 weeks in total which is about £150-200 a month to put aside depending on where they go. Then we each take time off alone to look after the kids or just for a bit of a breather plus take some time together.

It's expensive but there is no alternative. I recently swapped from doing evenings and weekends to working 4 weekdays 9-3. Previously holiday care wasn't needed but I was bringing in less money and not getting the family time at the weekend. We are better off now even paying for childcare and I keep my sanity because I'm not with the kids all day long every holiday.

We might get the odd day where a family member has them but I don't like to ask because I know my kids are a handful.

Xp covers half & I cover half.
I also used holiday clubs when they were younger. Now they are older they are happy to mooch around at home & I WFH.

We have a child minder 2 days a week, we cover some days with annual leave, and some we do a childcare swap with friends. ie have theirs for the day and vice versa. You can also still use tax free childcare. It does still get pricey so we put a bit away each month so it’s not such a big expense when the holidays come around

It can be a bit of a stressful juggle. Do you follow Pregnant and Screwed on Instagram? They campaign for working parents rights and that includes good quality affordable childcare. They have a series of protests happening nationally called ‘March of the mummies’ on the last Saturday of this month

Childcare cost is out of both wages, not just yours.

you work 60% a week. Is there a possibility if changing that to 60% a year. I know someone who did that when her child was primary aged. She worked full time during term time and so had lots of days off during holidays

Paid childcare (childminder)

Also - partner and i use leave separately, plus you are legally entitled to request unpaid parental leave on top of annual leave (google it).

Holiday club, I have in laws who are retired but don't provide any childcare.

My dh took a term time only job. It's lower wage than he could earn full time (obvs) but it saved us more in childcare costs and stress of covering the holidays.

I work 3 days. So does my friend. I watch her kids on a Monday when she's at work and she watches mine on a Wednesday when I'm working and she's off. Reduces the cost a little..

It's not ideal having to have more children round but it means I only pay 2 days childcare in half terms and the same for her

I got into significant debt and used food banks