Going away (almost) every school holiday?

[Reddingmilk]

We went abroad at Easter so we aren’t going away this month. Lots of school Mums being surprised that we aren’t going away again.

I am surprised people can afford to go on holiday so much as well as have enough annual leave for it?!

Quite a few families from school have been away at Easter, May, then they’re having a UK break this summer as well as going abroad. Then they’ll be off somewhere again in October. Baffles me.

In between this, they have lots of days out at the weekend.

I’m not just talking about foreign holidays, even the UK isn’t cheap and then using up annual leave too.

Am I doing something wrong? We are cautious with money and need to plan annual leave carefully so have some spare in case of illness etc. It seems to be unusual these days to spend time at home or just doing low key stuff locally.

I don't earn masses of money.
I get 28 days leave...

I went away for a week at easter

We are doing a couple of long weekends and a 10 day holiday over summer

I'll take a week over 1/2 term and a week over xmas - 5 weeks that's my holiday allowance

If my kids are sick I do work from home (which I realise is very helpful) and they are old enough to just be napping / watching telly and I can pop in / make them lunch throughout the day. It's harder when they're smaller obviously.

I would like to do this tbh. In the past few years we have bought holiday packages that have turned out to be quite expensive. I get really tense and anxious planning holidays so have done it that way (I am the planner in the house) but although most likely next year we cannot do a holiday due to unexpected travel to see my ill parents, I will sit down and start jotting ideas together.

We used hostels quite a lot. Check out Generator Hostels- they’re fabulous. We’ve also camped in Europe many times. For skiing, we use Mount Vacation, who are really good value, and let you pay in instalments. We usually drive, but you can find cheaper flights too.

Thanks so much! I have a holiday planner notebook so will write these ideas in. I love the idea of camping in Europe and especially driving as i really love a road trip.

Friend worked in a school in an affluent area. he'd say that the children said each holiday, including half terms, 'where are you going? Not, 'Are you going on holiday? He found it quite hard as often he and his family were not going away, certainly not more than once a year.

Our holidays abroad are curtailed by annual leave only, not finances. We are doing 7 this year. If we couldn't afford it, we'd do fewer. We both have highly stressful careers - my husband especially (think global head type role in an investment bank) - and having holidays booked means always having something to look forward to.
We definitely prioritise holidays over other things.

After the disgraceful verbal attack on Vlodomir Zelensky by Vance and Trump we decided to boycott everything American and this was reinforced by the way Europe and the UK were denounced in the messaging group chat which is a serious security breach no matter what Trump says. The RAF were involved in the raids on Yemen's Houthi rebels so where's the recognition for the UK's assistance