Page 17 | To be worn out by the mismatch between annual leave & school provision

Yellowlegobrick · 2023-07-13T16:05:32+00:00

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 🙁

WomblingTree86 · 17/07/2023 13:02

To the posters who keep saying that OP should have thought about this before having children and chosen a job/career accordingly, do you want your own daughters to only do jobs that fit in with childcare and not have a career they enjoy with a good salary? Will you be asking your sons to do the same thing? Also, my children are now adults but when they were at school there was childcare in the school holidays. It seems that things have gone backwards rather than forwards but that isn't something people would expect.

StormShadow · 17/07/2023 13:06

WomblingTree86 · 17/07/2023 13:02

To the posters who keep saying that OP should have thought about this before having children and chosen a job/career accordingly, do you want your own daughters to only do jobs that fit in with childcare and not have a career they enjoy with a good salary? Will you be asking your sons to do the same thing? Also, my children are now adults but when they were at school there was childcare in the school holidays. It seems that things have gone backwards rather than forwards but that isn't something people would expect.

They almost certainly wouldn't want everyone who'd like kids to do it anyway, or even just the women. Because that means a great many things being simply unavailable when schools are closed.

TomorrowToday · 17/07/2023 18:39

WomblingTree86 · 17/07/2023 13:02

To the posters who keep saying that OP should have thought about this before having children and chosen a job/career accordingly, do you want your own daughters to only do jobs that fit in with childcare and not have a career they enjoy with a good salary? Will you be asking your sons to do the same thing? Also, my children are now adults but when they were at school there was childcare in the school holidays. It seems that things have gone backwards rather than forwards but that isn't something people would expect.

100%

jolaylasofia · 17/07/2023 22:16

Jellycatspyjamas · 17/07/2023 10:14

this is hindsight and obviously not helpful but when having kids you really need to start looking for work that is conducive to having kids.

That’s ridiculous, I had 20 years of a career under my belt when I became a mum - should I have left that and retrained in education? No one is expecting men to chose a child friendly career long before becoming a parent, and what if you chose a career to facilitate children and then find you can’t get pregnant/have children? And it just so happens that many family friendly careers are poorly paid (women’s work). Maybe society needs to consider that if the cost of living is high enough to need two incomes to provide for families (often driven by high housing costs), and we need adults to be economically active, and we need children to maintain population there should be access to quality, affordable childcare to facilitate this.

actually my comment is for both parents. we make mistakes of trying to make kids fit in around us but should be the other way around.

NewDayNewDiary · 18/07/2023 08:11

WomblingTree86 · 17/07/2023 13:02

To the posters who keep saying that OP should have thought about this before having children and chosen a job/career accordingly, do you want your own daughters to only do jobs that fit in with childcare and not have a career they enjoy with a good salary? Will you be asking your sons to do the same thing? Also, my children are now adults but when they were at school there was childcare in the school holidays. It seems that things have gone backwards rather than forwards but that isn't something people would expect.

Exactly. Why are people so determined to make mothers relinquish a chance of a career? It’s so depressing and outdated.

Jellycatspyjamas · 18/07/2023 10:39

actually my comment is for both parents. we make mistakes of trying to make kids fit in around us but should be the other way around.

But realistically it’s mostly women who would be adjusting their career aspirations - I don’t think it’s right or fair, but you don’t hear 20 something men thinking “I’d better find a career to support future childcare”, or anyone thinking they should.

WomblingTree86 · 18/07/2023 11:32

jolaylasofia · 17/07/2023 22:16

actually my comment is for both parents. we make mistakes of trying to make kids fit in around us but should be the other way around.

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So you give up your career and take a low paid job that “fits around your children” but do you also tell them not to bother working at school or getting any qualifications or a good job/career because they will need to drop it and take low paid work when they have children?

SusiePevensie · 18/07/2023 15:12

At a societal level this is so damaging - parents (women mostly) being forced out of work or into worse paid jobs, so paying less tax kids being stuck in front of screens while parents try to work, so falling behind at school. Childcare is infrastructure - we all benefit from it, not just parebtd.

Swashbuckled · 21/07/2023 13:00

I actually think that young people will decide not to have children. My own adult children are thinking this way due to having to pay back student loans, high mortgage interest rates, increased house prices and the general cost of living.

They just can’t afford it and wouldn’t be able to pay for childcare and mortgage or rent. They are adapting plans for their futures and having different aspirations.

lieselotte · 25/07/2023 09:01

Having different aspirations is no bad thing.

But as others have said, for those who do want children, the infrastructure should be provided as its lack has a massively disproportionate effect on women.

I'd do away with child benefit, which is massively divisive anyway, and put the money (with more money as well) into early years education and primary school holiday care instead.

However are people prepared to pay more tax for better childcare or will they just say "I'm not using it why should I pay for it?"

ChatBFP · 25/07/2023 09:24

@jolaylasofia

The pay and conditions of TAs are already terrible, partly because they are some of the few jobs that fit school hours. If there were thousands more women chasing these jobs, it would be even worse!

SleepingStandingUp · 25/07/2023 09:32

It's one of the things stopping me groovy back to work.

Wrap around childcare for 3 them covering all the holidays on top of medical appts and sick days.
Too many kids for family to consistently help. Youngest too two young for weeks of random summer clubs. So we'd need solid weeks of childcare. It's the cost AND the logistics which are overwhelming