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?!

Okay I lied, they have them but it doesnt fit our circumstances. There's 1 but only open to children that attend that school
Private ones only take age 6+ and they are £33 for 3 hours. (I have 4 kids, two being aged under 6)
I only have my rota a week in advance so I could book something for the older ones only to not be able to take them (my mum watches them until my partner gets home but will not take them out anywhere)

This is part of the reason I only went back 3 days a week. It really does make life a bit easier in the school holidays.

My two are 7 and 4. This summer we are doing a mixture of:
Annual leave
Childcare swap (have a good friend who is also part time and we have days that work for us to do this)
Grandparents doing a couple of days each

We also know a couple of good holiday clubs, and may use these more as the kids get bigger. They are £35-40 per child so still cheaper than nursery fees.

Last year in summer hols I took 4 weeks unpaid leave, but it was hard financially.

Private nursery, after school and holiday clubs
Most full-time childcare providers do summer hols as well. Save some annual leave of course for family holiday.

Blimey this sounds hard work. I'm a consultant (not a medic but another health professional role) and for various reasons can't go down beyond 4 days a week. I also earn more than DH but he's in quite a 'male' role so not sure how flexi they will be. Why does it have to be so hard!

I keep all of my annual leave for the various holidays - I hardly use any of it other than for school holidays/ inset days - this year I haven’t used any for days for myself.

I’m divorced and only have half the holidays to cover - but then that’s no different to someone in a couple, as they’d be two of them responsible for the whole. Lone parents obviously have it a lot harder.

The holiday club for some of the time, and sometimes a bit of help from my parents (but they don’t live nearby so it involves a trip)

We used a mixture of childminder, taking annual leave seperately, at least one week of a holiday club (my dc like the ones where you put on a musical theatre show at the end of the week), odd days from grandparents and childcare swaps with other parents.

so that mothers can deal with the limited hours of childcare available.
That does sound great but I think we all always need to reframe childcare as a parents’ issue not a women’s issue. As long as we talk about it as something for mothers to deal with it will continue to be mothers who are impacted, you know?

Well, given that 90% of resident single parents/ lone parents are women, it very much is a "women's issue" for a lot of us.

Tag team annual leave with DH, holiday club (much to their irritation) and my in laws one day a week.

Holiday clubs

in my country we have to cover 12 weeks of summer holidays. Quality holiday clubs aren’t cheap, but we made sure to save up during the year and to consider the cost an annual, not a monthly expense.

some schools run holiday clubs

Combination of taking annual leave, family help and holiday clubs. The school offered a holiday club and there was another one at the local leisure centre.

Those days are over but we used to take two weeks off as a family together, then have a week off each separately and then two weeks holiday club.

Annual leave (DH & I take 2 weeks each with 1 overlap so we can have a week holiday together) so that’s 3 weeks done.

Other 3 weeks they stay with GPs, go to paid holiday clubs and occasional play date swaps with friends.

Agree with others - use an all year nursery to avoid this pain as long as possible!

Colleagues of mine have paid for foreign student au pairs for August before. Low basic wage in exchange for food & lodgings. It wouldn’t work for our set up at home but if you have the space might be worth looking into.

My babys Daycare has a holiday club too so when he goes to school he'll be there in the mornings and hopefully I can adjust my part time hours to finish early to collect him from school, then during school holidays I will have him there all day, and also use annual leave.
Do you know though that each parent gets 18 weeks unpaid parental leave for a child to be used until they are 18 yo, max 4 weeks per year?

https://www.gov.uk/parental-leave/entitlement

I actually don't find it that hard - you have to plan ahead obviously but once you know what clubs your children like, it isn't that difficult to book etc

I think the factors that can make it harder are if you struggle to afford childcare, if your area has poor provision or if you have children who struggle in childcare

I work term time/school hours (ish, I start earlier but can have DC with me as next door to his school and just pop round with him).

It is the only way I could do it. Don't drive to be able to take him here there and everywhere.

It was grandparents when the kids were small and summer holiday camps later on (church, YMCA, any other private provider).

My DD is in a holiday club for two weeks, I have three weeks of leave over the holidays and DH taking leave to cover the rest of the days. We have one week when we’re all off together. DH will cover October half term.

I sit down in January and sort annual leave out vs school holidays, I make a list of what DH and I need to book off - then we both request it from our employers and hope it gets approved (usually does).

Prior to school age, use nursery in holidays. Once they're school age it's a bit of a tag team affair of your and DH annual leave, clubs, and them going to friend's houses for a day. Great if they're in a big group that can all go to a different house each day.
There are holiday clubs all over. Most places that offer a hobby term time activity for kids will have a week of something going on over the summer (drama, dance, gymnastics) The kid's primary school might have an offer. Ours had 2 weeks of multi sports and 1 drama. Also check out if local leisure centres and outdoor pursuits centers offer anything.

My friend has an au pair (all year round)

My husband retrained as a teacher, obviously not just for childcare, but it does solve all the: “what do we do with holiday cover?” Issues. On the other hand my job is highly flexible so I can pick up the slack during term time, when it would be much more difficult for him.

Children here have 9 weeks in primary so a total nightmare. I'm a sahm so thankfully I don't have this issue now but when I worked the crèche they attended picked up and collected from their primary school and also offered holiday care. A good childminder who will do after school and then holidays is amazing if you can find one. They are like gold dust around here

Mixture of leave and holiday clubs.

Childminders/nursery before school age.
Then once you hit school age, holiday clubs and splitting annual leave as much as possible. There's also the option of parental leave or buying extra annual leave to use, though of course that has other financial implications.

Around here, holiday clubs run at really awkward hours so you can't even use them to cover a full working day.