If you work FT what do you do with kids in summer hols?

[Soundbathfan]

Hi all
My husband and I are due our first in Dec and I am thinking ahead in terms of childcare. We intend to carry on working ideally FT but have no family particularly close :(. What on earth do people do for childcare during school years in summer hols?!

Be a teacher myself. But it's my last year as I'm leaving in summer as DC are old enough to leave for a few hours now

DD is 10 now and DH and I divorced, 50/50 arrangement.
This year I’m taking 2 weeks AL (would’ve been 3 but no real need now she’s older), she’s off with her DF and DGM for a week, choir camp for one week so just 2 weeks to fill (she will probably visit other GPs for some of the time).
We’ve always been incredibly lucky with a mix of clubs, leave, family (not particularly close, she’s always gone to stay with them) - and of course WFH now she doesn’t need entertaining 24/7.

You're fine whilst theyre nursery age but once in school my husband and I would take 1 week of together for a family holiday then Id take an additional 10 days and he'd take another 5 spread out so that one of us would be at home for majority of every week. On the days we weren't at home (approx 2 days pw) they would go to holiday clubs eg gymnastics, football, theatre whatever their interests were that year. To be honest, having the holiday clubs was a good balance for us as my kids didnt get bored during that 6week break and we didnt feel guilty if our days off were quite relaxed.

Mainly holiday clubs

But that can be awkward for the U5s as quite a lot (round here at least) have a minimum age that excludes them. I struck lucky, because the nursery I used would take back on an ad hoc basis DC who were formerly registered with them (they wouldn't take other school age DC who had never attended, just those who were familiar with the place and its routines)

Otherwise, see if any neighbours have older teens who haven't found a summer job and buy babysitting from them. Or from the extended family (provide accommodation on au pair terms, and a good spending allowance for days out)

I used a mix of annual leave, my mum came for a week, and childminder and summer clubs for the rest. I worked from home one day a week so I could use a sports club scheme that day which involved collecting at lunchtime and taking back. I did that for several years.

I have 3 children (8,3,1). The younger two are in nursery 2 days a week all year round bar the two weeks a year nursay is closed. I only work 2 days a week and 1 Saturday a month. DH works full time and picks up overtime if we want/need extra money. I've booked 2 weeks off in summer hols, the other 4 are either holiday club ( £94 for monday-friday 8-4! ) or with a grandparent/friend for the day. I look after other friends children on my non work days in the holidays too

Its so difficult isnt it. I used a childminder for mine when they were pre school. Then when at school, i used holiday club but do have to save all my holiday each year to cover holidays

Mine are teens now but I had no family nearby so combination of both parents taking leave and holiday clubs.

This year: two weeks holiday, two weeks childcare clubs, and two weeks of muddling through.

I work 4 days, so can do a bit of a trick where I take 1.5 hours leave per day, and work 4.5 hours across 5 days. So a week of afternoons off, with only 1 day leave. Kids are happy to laze in the mornings while I WFH, then head out after lunch.

We'll do that one of the "muddling" weeks, and DH will take a some half days to do the same the second one.

We were very lucky in that our former nanny moved on to work in a school, so was still available to cover school holidays for a couple of years. After that we used a combination of holiday clubs, swaps with friends (so each take it in turns to look after both sets of children), annual leave, sending the DC away for a week to stay with grandparents or having the grandparents down to stay with us for the week.

The latter two options aren't much mentioned but if you get on well with your parents/in-laws and they're suitable child carers they're really efficient solutions to the "we don't have any family nearby" problem.

This is the only reason I am still a teacher 😅

The school my little boy goes to has wrap around childcare that also do a holiday club. Obviously it's a few years on for you as nursery is open all year round for the first few years, but this was a big deciding factor in the school we chose for my son.

We take our annual leave separately so two weeks each, and for the other 2 weeks it is a combination of holiday clubs and grandparents.

Oh, BTW, school holiday clubs are much cheaper than nursery. In comparison, we pay £67 a day for nursery for my youngest and a school holiday club day is only £30 a day for my eldest so can't wait until my youngest is at school!!

We’ll probably do a mix of family/ annual leave but the holiday club at the end of our street does 8am-6pm childcare every school holiday (usually bank holidays too) for £38 a day so might make some use of that if it’s still around.

Family help and holiday clubs and annual leave, buying additional leave, and working flexibly in the evenings once the kids are asleep.

You can take unpaid leave if necessary
https://www.gov.uk/parental-leave

Nursery for the first few years which is easy: open 7.45 to 6 abd only closes for two weeks over Christmas. Then school which feels like it’s hardly ever open 🤪

If you’re me, you make a spreadsheet with all the half terms and holidays, split the weeks between you using annual leave or unpaid parental leave, then find clubs or reciprocal care with other parents for the remaining weeks. Save some annual leave for inset days and sickness. Book your leave asap, ditto clubs (though in our area we’re lucky to have loads ranging from £25 a day in the local sports hall to an eye watering £49 a day in the fancy private school), have a back-up plan for everything, worship the spreadsheet. DP: “We can just figure it out nearer the time, I guess.”

For kids a bit older if you have the budget, a sleep away summer camp: I have brilliant memories of the times my parents sent us to these – cabins! Kayaks! A tuck shop! – and it’s only now I realise what a break it must have been for them. I thought they were just giving us a treat…

Train to teach then you get the same holidays.

I'm joking of course! 😳

In all seriousness it's one of the things that keeps me in teaching.

Child care, annual leave and splitting the day (I worked 5 hours so I went in at 7am on bus, he dropped the kids and car at midday as I finished and he went to work until late, luckily 2 mins walk apart, flexible jobs.

There is one holiday club in my area and they don’t advertise it anywhere so it took me ages to find it. I’m using them 2 days a week, family 2 days a week and I have a rota going with some other mums for 1 day per week over the summer hols. This is my first year of school holidays and it is so hard to figure it all out.

I have 3 and eldest now finishing y6 will do a mix of being at home while we wfh and arranging to see friends / tech camp / and the hugh school.summer school/ we have a 2 week holiday booked and I will take one day a week off

The other 2 will go to their primary school.camp for 2 weeks then a mix of different ones until.we go on holiday.

We don't have any help either and it's always been a juggle and can get v expensive

As they get older you can do shorter day clubs 10-3 or something if you can work from home but when they are young I just find ones they enjoy.

Tough x

Weve not had time off together in 6years other than BH/weekends, DH buys an extra week of leave and I take a week of parental (unpaid) so we have 14w of leave between us to split across the holidays.

We are both fortunate to work at home full time so when the other parent is on leave we’re still about for lunch, evenings out. Holidays are a luxury we can’t afford other than a weekend away in the UK so it suits us for now.

Holiday clubs and annual leave. I have a child with special needs and there is very little provision for them so I ended up spending a fortune on students coming to the house to care for him.

When DS was under 5, he was in nursery which ran for 50 weeks of the year, so no issues with cover. We deliberately avoided ones attached to schools which were only open term-time.

Once he was in school, we did a combination of things:

Took some AL separately so there was a parent at home (I get six weeks, DH gets 4, we take two weeks off together and then I have four weeks and he has two which we take separately, meaning 8 weeks are covered).

Holiday club - some are totally amazing and DS actively wants to go (science camp, tennis camp etc).

Once your child gets over about 5/6, they can sit at home for a few hours watching tv while you work from home next to them. It isn’t fair to do that for weeks on end, and it absolutely doesn’t work with a preschooler, but we have a couple of days where DS will be sitting with DH in the morning while I’m at work, then I’ll come home and take over after lunch. Luckily I can work flexibly so works out ok.

If you career allows flexible working you can 'tag team'. My DH and I work different hours during school holidays. Usually we both work during the day but I go onto earlies or evenings with him shunting a shift forward or back an hour or two as needed.

I work for a community project so we operate extended hours and all staff have flexibility as we've a few people in caring roles (parents, children, partners). The wage is lower in charity but it probably balances out with benefits like this.