How do you manage half term and working full time?

[Caramilks]

I’ve been out of full time work for a few years since having my 3 kids. I’m dreading half term as I am so use to days out and little breaks.

Im just worried they will miss out on so much now. So how do you plan your weeks? Do you have a day off once a week or something?

Mixture of taking annual leave, booking them into clubs, sending them to their father, and my wife looking after them. It's always going to be a juggle until they reach secondary age. But then it's a different issue, because there are no clubs for 11+ kids here, so they are kicking about bored.

At least one of us takes it off

mix of annual leave / clubs / trading days with friends…I take there kids when they are working they have mine….half terms aren’t so bad as it is only a week….the 6 week summer holidays as the balancing act!

My son went to holiday clubs and my husband and I took out holidays separately some of the time. Fortunately our son loved the holiday clubs. It was hard work, I can’t pretend it wasn’t.

Lone parent here working full time. It's easier now as DS is old enough not to need childcare. When he was younger, a mixture of WFH, holiday clubs and begging for favours from family members. I took all my annual leave in school holidays too.

As above, we split the hols between us (DH off Oct, I'm off Feb etc) then holiday club or grandparents for the remainder.

A couple of days of a wfh day and an in the office day with a second wfh/office as as I can. Longer holidays are the same. Mine are teens but located away from friends so unless I take them, they are pretty much stuck 😕

Annual leave and holiday clubs, with the odd day of me WFH and her overdosing on screen time (she’s 10 and just lets me get on with my work, I wouldn’t risk this with a younger kid)

I found a job at my son's secondary school, which is 40 weeks a year (but pays more than my old full time job) so I have pretty much all the school holidays off now with my kids! It's the unicorn job!

Look for outdoor pursuits type centres if you have any near you. Ours run holiday clubs till 15 they just change up the activities. So over 10s are doing things like air rifle, high ropes, abseiling, canoeing. Younger kids are doing archery, bushcraft, bell boating.

During halfterm, holiday clubs. Agree with their friends’ parents which one and they are happy to spend with their friends all week. We try to save our holiday for actually going away so don’t have any leave to cover half term with that. During the summer, it is going away, and holiday clubs.

This summer most weeks will be:

One day I take leave
One day I WFH with the kids and another working mum brings her kid and laptop for a working play date
One day holiday club
One day dad has off (shift work)
One day with my mum.

One week off as a family for a UK holiday.

Dh did feb, I’ve just been off this one. Easter was a mixture of grandparents and holiday clubs

We either go away for the week (this year we’re away one of the weeks at Easter and all October half term), or else it’s a mixture of childminder (3 days), grandparents (1 day at each) or occasionally a day at friends houses instead of one of the childminder days. I’m very close to several of DDs school friends’ Mums and they often offer for her to go for a full-day play date. I return the favour at weekends. Now and then one of us might take a day off but if we take all our holiday in half term, there’s nothing left for Christmas, family holidays or time off to yourself which is very important.

When I had lots of children at home one of us took annual leave.

When we were down to one at home we used holiday clubs but took a couple of days off together for days out.

No WFH when mine were needing childcare but we were lucky to get help from grandparents and used a childminder who only had school age DC so had lots of fun with school friends. One set of GPs live 200 miles away and would do a whole week at Easter and in the Summer. I was 70% contract so some days my parents would do the morning and I’d take them out in the afternoon. Swaps with other parents as well. Needed a spreadsheet for the Summer holiday.

I am only part time, but still have to juggle childcare in school holidays. My DC come to work with me if it's a shorter shift (4 hours), there is plenty for them to do. Or of DH is WFH in his shed-office & it's decent weather, they run around in the garden (younger DC are 12 & nearly 10, 12 year old has SEN).

Work from home so can semi supervise, a combination of long lunch trips and catching up in the evenings or afternoons off and swapping kids with their friends seems to work.

We took two days off each and they also spent one day with their grandparents. We're both lucky enough to have 30 days leave each per year, plus worked part time and so we each took our shorter days off, so it cost slightly less in leave than two full days. It did mean that we only had leave left for one week away and a week at Christmas all together, but it's only a few years.

I assume it's not just the half terms but the full holidays you are concerned about?

In any case, we did the same for both, and used a mix of clubs, childminder, annual leave, working from home, and my mum would come and stay for a week in the summer.

Remember you can take parental leave as well, up to 2 weeks for each child.

Half-terms DH usually takes off or we are away. The longer holidays are a mixture of annual leave, GPs, holiday club. All the usual things.

I just work part time and it's an absolute ball ache. The summer holidays were the worst, as my son absolutely hated the holiday club.

When I took the job at Easter, my boss made out there was lots of flexibility. She said I could work from home and didn't mind when I did the work, as long as it got done and did one office day a week in the longer holidays. Turns out, this isn't really the case. What really pisses me off about this is she works from home and two out of my three days, I am in the office on my own!