Wfh during summer hols with young children

[Jeannie88]

At what age do you think being able to properly wfh can be done while looking after your children? Just curious as a few friends in whattsapp group. Some say it's fine as 5, 6, 7 year olds can amuse themselves, others say their 5/6/7 year olds need constant attention. The debate is should they put them into nursery, holiday clubs etc. They do have the luxury of parents being able to help and take them out, so not all day every day having to parent.

Personally, I have responded with alternating days, so a child free day get lots done, next day less. I did also point out that those who don't wfh have no choice and need to rely on childcare or family help if lucky to have it.

For those who have partners who wfh as well it can be managed but when DP out at work it's difficult and stressful.

What do you think would be the best option? I would find it taxing to wfh and look after DC and would certainly consider some days of childcare and willing to pay for it, even 2 or 3 days a week, or full steam working and take DC out on the evening and weekends for fresh air and exercise.

It's not easy these days with both parents working during holidays 😕

I’d say age 9 onwards. Before that they’re far too needy. Mine are now 12 and 16 and I can wfh and not see them all day.

My work state that you can only have children 10 and above in the house if you are the person 'supervising'. Children younger than this need to go to childcare just like they would if you are in the office.

When getting perspective on topics like this I think it's useful to think about how you would feel and why if someone other than you put your child in that scenario IE if a teacher or childminder left a child mostly unsupervised for several hours in a row over a matter of weeks. Most would be very unhappy if there child was left to their own devices just for the day.

DS is 4 and he often just plays while I wfh. During the holidays I wfh downstairs so I can keep an eye on him. Get a good quality headset for meetings, a decent mouse & it’ll be fine.

Upper primary. Y5/6, for a short/sch hours day on an odd day, not regularly.

It will depend on the kid.

DS is 4 and he often just plays while I wfh. During the holidays I wfh downstairs so I can keep an eye on him.

This is a bit sad. Either he isn't get the attention he deserves or your job isnt.

My eldest is six, we've booked holiday clubs and annual leave. There will be the odd full day or afternoon after a club that's she's home while we're working but only a few over the eight weeks. I think she's too young to be left to her own devices on a regular basis, I'd rather she was out with friends at a club or else getting real time with one of us. And the only way to guarantee she won't disturb us when working is to use the TV.

Depends, we both WFH but my DP is in meetings most of the time so couldn't do that with DC aged 6 whereas I schedule my own meetings and have a lot of tasks I work on alone so it is quite easy for me to partly WFH a bit using screentime for meetings and fitting other things around when they are occupied. Trying to do a full day of work isn't really feasible though and it only works because I can use holiday to reduce hours and flexibly work that including some evenings. Using some holiday clubs to allow for full days of work and for them to have good experiences

For long stretches of time (e.g. school holidays) then personally I think children under secondary school (or Y6 at a push) need childcare organising in exactly the same way as you would of you were working outside the home - both for their sakes, and for the employer.

For the odd ad-hoc day, perhaps Y4 or Y5.

Not my 5yo that's for sure. We both work full time from home, ds will be doing 3 days a week at a club he loves, and we are alternating annual leave between us for the other 2. Toddler dd will continue at nursery as usual.

Wfh with kids is fine for the odd sick day when there's lots of sleeping/staring at tv with fever (and by odd I mean ludicrously frequent now with 2 settings...), but when they're healthy, young and overflowing with energy, it's not fair on them to work too.

I just dont think it's fair on the children. Or the employer. But assuming you are happy to swizz your employer surely you still care about your children having a decent summer.

This seems like a sensible and balanced approach, fair on you, your child and your employers

I don't do as many hours during the holidays but still need to do maybe 2 hours a day. My ds is 4 years old and is very happy to amuse himself for those 2 hours and I work from the living room so he's not "unsupervised".
My partner is very senior in his job and his work encourage parents to have their children at home whilst they wfh rather than putting them in childcare! They encourage fully flexible working, and he usually works with his office door open. Their view is family first, but having spoken to others this is unusual in wfh scenarios.

Depends. Ideally, never. Wfh is not typically an acceptable childcare choice.

However my 6 year old is active all week so if I keep her home for a few days over summer, with express management agreement, she will happily spend the day watching TV and reading books because she normally only gets TV once a week and will therefore reliably watch films quietly.

She knows I'm in my office nearby and we will eat together at lunchtime.

She is very good at enjoying her own company though, I wouldn't expect that from most 6 yo, I think it is unusual.

Eta: I have full childcare in place over summer, wfh with DD would be an exceptional circumstance where the alternative would be taking emergency parental leave for childcare falling through or illness.

I'm very impressed by those with 4/5 year old who could manage this.
DD2 is 6 and I can barely write one email. (She does have SEN though)
I think DD1 (no SEN) could've managed me WFH from about 8.
I mostly work term time so all hypothetical.

At my work it's about age 10.

From maybe age 8 people use shorter clubs - quite a lot round here are 9.30-3ish - and a bit of TV to babysit around the edges. TV babysitter works very well after a solid 6 hours of gymnastics.

My work say under 10’s need to have some kind of childcare provision in place as though you were in the office.
My youngest is almost 13 and I hate WFH with him during the holidays if he’s not got plans for the day!! I hate the idea that he’s just sitting rotting in front of a screen instead of interacting with a human or literally anything else 😂 mind you he has 2 sisters about who will be on college/uni holidays and are happy driving him off to do stuff on some of the days he’s not doing stuff with friends and we have family around to do a day here and there so it’s not very often that he’s actually got nothing on for a full day.
I wouldn’t do a wfh job with small kids though. Well, not without something proper in place for them.

Officially in my work (and my previous two companies too) you would be disciplined if it was found that you were doing childcare during working hours

The argument of well I will do more at night doesn’t wash as colleagues won’t stick around to do calls at night while you are catching up and the nature of our role is very collaborative so lots of workshops, collaborative sessions etc

Realistically it wouldn’t be an issue if they can completely look after themselves so I would say secondary school age and up, you don’t move or miss meetings for childcare reasons and deadlines are met

Mine are 6 and 9 (almost 10). I can hardly work at all with the 6 year old at home so she will definitely be going to clubs over the summer, though some finish at 3.30/4 so I'm hoping she'll entertain herself a bit or I'll have to finish work in the evening.

The 9 year old would be ok for the odd day but not for a stretch of days at a time. Again he's mostly booked into clubs over the summer, but if there are one or two days where I can't find anything suitable I'm happy for him to be at home.

I find it telling that some friends who have a SAHP still send their kids to at least some clubs over the summer. I would do the same - I think they need to socialise with friends a bit.

This I think. Any younger really isn’t fair to anyone.

This. I'm fed up of people thinking they can WFH with their DC and do their job. Feel sad for their dc too. What a shit holiday. It strikes me as abusive.

My 6yo will be home for the odd hour or so before dropping off at sports/drama camp (some run 10am-3pm). She reads well and is happy playing with toys or doing an activity book for an hour at a time. I wouldn't consider a full day at home, and even a half day camp needs one of us to be with her the other half of the day. I expect we'll be using camps etc while she's primary aged. It's more fun for her to be out trying new things, being physical and being with friends so I wouldn't just have her at home for hours on end even if we knew she wouldn't pester us.

I think under 10's should go to holiday clubs or grandparents if willing and available. My DD works from home 4 days a week and she'll have a week off to take them on day trips whilst SiL works. He'll have a different week off with them to take them out too. They'll go on holiday with both parents for a week all together then kids will spend 3 separate weeks in a holiday club except for Friday as my DD works 4 long days a week. I'm too far away to help. The DC like to go swimming or den making in the woods, or bike riding or meeting up with friends. They get very bored if stuck at home all day.

That's really unfair to a 4 year old.

It amazes me what these people done about childcare before working from home was a thing. I'm sure they didn't take them along to work with them as they had no childcare!

We can do it with our 5 year old for a day, but that's with both of us wfh and only a day at a time.
We're doing it today as the school is shut for polling day. We've planned a bunch of activities she can do with no/very limited help, things she hasn't seen before, to keep her occupied. And we'll stagger our lunch breaks.

It's not ideal and we're not doing it over summer. I wouldn't do it as a regular or longer term thing.