To be worn out by the mismatch between annual leave & school provision

[Yellowlegobrick]

25 days. Like most people i get 25 days annual leave.

School holidays plus inset days needs 65 days cover.

There are sod all good options to cover it locally. There'll be a football camp 20 mins away for 3 days 9 - 2.30, a forest school doing an odd week 9-3. The bigger camps are massively oversubscribed, don't run for the whole holiday and you sometimes can't get a place.

Aibu to think there needs to be a formalised, centrally managed system to acknowledge the gap and provide better coverage?

Even if DH take all our annual leave separately, we can't cover it all, especially not when we lose at least a couple of days each per year of annual leave covering days the children are ill.

Its a constant annual stress, i find myself filled with dread when the letter comes from school: end of term, finish after lunch at 1.15.... there goes another half day 🙁

Well no, my DH dying of cancer in his 30s and my eldest having additional needs were not part of my ‘lifestyle choice’. Both of these things make the holidays hard though it is getting easier as they get older.

Obviously it won’t work out if none of us have children just in case life goes pear shaped. I really, really didn’t expect to be in the position I’m in now.

The rules were more permissive years ago. Kid credits were until 16.

If you check your NI record, buy back any you missed for the last 6 years.

The price in the UK is ridiculous. For comparison, my friend who leaves in another European country pays 1000 euros for 2 kids for 9 weeks. That's just over 110 euros a week for 2 kids. In my town is £62 a day for my 2 kids, so over £300 a week....😱

@Moreorlessmentallystable what are the ratios in the country you refer too?

It's certainly been mentioned to me before that some countries have much higher ratios than the UK has.

Another high cost for out of school care is rent, really the ideal place for then is in a school building, with access to a safe and secure play area, but that involves paying for the rent, heating and the janitorial services. None of which are cheap.

I agree, people that make the decision to not work or work part time ...meaning either getting subsidized by their partner or on benefits (subsidised by the taxpayer) 😂

the ideal place for then is in a school building, with access to a safe and secure play area, but that involves paying for the rent, heating and the janitorial services. None of which are cheap.

and as mentioned up thread-schools need that chunk of time for maintenance/repair and building work-many schools are on the verge of falling down. It’s very difficult to do any sort of work when the children are using the grounds.

Oh FGS.

A) Didn't predict ex-H would leave so I'd be covering it all from one person's annual leave.
B) Didn't predict both DC having disabilities and therefore unable to attend clubs/ wrap around care.

My bad. Should have seen that coming, eh?

Also not really very easy for lone parents to "just work evenings" is it?

Not everyone is in your situation. 🙄

This is true, the one i use pick up from 4 schools, they are based in in central one. So with a bit of effort they could work with the council to move to a different school if necessary.

Please tell me people do actually sit down and discuss this type of thing because i read these threads and think how could you not have known it was going to be a problem and you can't afford it!

@ladyvivienne it must be nice to have life so sorted. I didn’t know that my DDs disabilities would mean that as she got older she’d be less able to tolerate childcare that worked well in her earlier years. I didn’t know that would mean that just as things should be easing on the childcare front, they’d actually become much more complex. I didn’t know that around half the childcare provision in my area would shut following a world wide pandemic (which I also didn’t know would come).

It’s easy to be smug when your life choices work in your favour (I know, I’ve sadly been that person), to think that’s wholly down to your superior planning skills. The reality is none of us knows when life will throw us a curve ball and those carefully made plans will fall through.

It's also bad for the economy. All the women taking pay cuts and worse jobs (am not including teaching here - though they should get paid more too) who could be paying a lot more tax if the gov't subsidised holiday clubs. Probably quite a bit more thsn the subsidy would cost.

You can also really see how the summer slide happens and why it disadvantages poorer kids. One lot are off doing football clubs and drama camps and getting taken on interesting day trips. Another lot are stuck in front of screens for days on end (and I'm not even anti screens).

Most schools are not council run any more which complicates things.

I think you’d be hard pushed to find a school anywhere that didn’t need to do maintenance/decorating/deep cleaning for several weeks over the summer though. That’s the best chunk of time they’ve got to get contractors in when the kids aren’t around and to put scaffolding up/turn the water and electrics off/rewire/mend roofs etc

This is one of the reasons I have continued working part time, and plan to until youngest can be left home alone.

We take 2 alternate weeks off and use holiday clubs and grandparents to pick up on the other weeks. We would be a bit stuffed without our parents as the club's only run short days. We wouldn't be able to afford them for the entire summer. We don't have jobs where we can WFH or easily take unpaid leave.

We only take one weeks holiday a year at the same time which is a bit shit but hey ho.

When I was younger our council did run summer clubs, ironically most of the kids going on them the mums didn’t work, or at least not in the summer, it was just for something to do!

DD went to a sports camp (she hated it) but they are in a different primary school every summer, so it can be done. The problem though is the location changes and means more driving/less time to go to work.

I'm north of the border so most are still council run.

And the afterschool is a not for profit parent run organisation which the council helped setup 25 years ago. It still needs to balance the books.

Work is going on in the school so kids are being kept away from the area of work. But I hear what you are saying. Certainly more difficult if the school owners have no invested interest in encouraging child care provision.

People who I know who make this work are:-

• my hairdresser, she does football club. Assume she finishes work when it ends or her DH who wfh full time picks his son up.

• ex colleague when we worked for a law firm who had 25 days holiday plus shut downs for 2 weeks at Christmas and Easter. All other law firms do this or most do. I used to work in the offices of a factory which did similar shutdowns.

• self employed so you can take holiday when you want/need.

self employed so you can take holiday when you want/need.

Which is fine but you then don’t have any money coming in, clients leave and your business becomes unviable. For me having part of my work self employed means I can finish a bit early if needed for (non-existent) childcare. It also means working in the early morning before kids are up and late at night when they’re in bed. It means burning the candle at both ends, juggling my diary and feeling like I do nothing well.

Decent, accessible childcare shouldn’t be so hard to find - I can really see how parents of kids with additional support needs just end up not working. Trying to keep a professional job with no formal support is a bloody nightmare.

Please tell me people do actually sit down and discuss this type of thing because i read these threads and think how could you not have known it was going to be a problem and you can't afford it!

But that's not what this thread is about. It is about the lack of provisions for holiday childcare. Most people get 4/5 weeks off work. Holiday childcare is almost non-existent in some places. Most families have two working parents. I would love to pay for a holiday club but they won't take my DD until she is older.

That, plus the fact that no amount of discussion in advance means a couple will know what holiday childcare provision is going to be available in years to come. You can do all the prep you want, but if the providers pack up it doesn't make two shits of difference.

Schools aren’t there to provide childcare. So expecting them to have your kids all year round is unrealistic.

They need downtime, and playtime, and family time.

They need downtime, and playtime, and family time.

I'll tell my employer that, screw anyone else who wants time off in the summer.

....but primary children do need (weeks of) childcare over the holidays while their parents are working. Not everyone is able to take all the holidays off, wfh or enlist help from grandparents help.

No one is suggesting teachers run holiday clubs but with more families needing 2 parents working ft, childcare in some form is needed, and the OP is saying there is a lack of available options.

Please tell me people do actually sit down and discuss this type of thing because i read these threads and think how could you not have known it was going to be a problem and you can't afford it!

The issue isn't not being able to afford it, its trying to find it. You can't buy or pay for what doesn't exist.

I am lucky I got my oldest into wrap around care before the other one in the town attached to a nursery closed just after the pandemic.

There is now a serious shortage of places in the town. Something like 10 coming free between 4 schools in August.
You can guarantee they'll go to kids who already have siblings in the provision.

Even for parents who work part-time it's an issue.

And actually I think UK school holidays are too short. They could do with being a couple of weeks longer. Reduce the wind down time at end of term.

‘They need downtime, and playtime, and family time.

I'll tell my employer that, screw anyone else who wants time off in the summer.’

you don’t have enough holidays to take a summer off anyway, isn’t that what you’re all moaning about?
It’s not up to your employer to worry about your kids, and more than it’s a school’s job to childmind.