Christmas childcare!

[Christmaschildcare]

Before I had children, I thought parents wanted Christmas off because of the ‘magic’ of Christmas with children. I’m sure some do but I now realise it’s mostly because THERE’S NO FLIPPING CHILDCARE OPTIONS AVAILABLE

I have three children under six. Their school is (naturally) closed, their nursery is closed. There are no holiday clubs in our area open whatsoever. We have no one to ask - everyone either works or is in same boat as us so cannot look after THREE CHILDREN for us.

We need to find cover for two weeks. My dh can take a week, and I can take a week, so we’re lucky that we can plan to share.

but even that has been an issue for both employees. We’ve both been told we ‘need to do our part’ and ‘can’t expect to be off just because you’ve got kids’ and ‘well it needs to be fair to everyone’ etc etc.

while I agree with this in theory - in practice, what on Earth am I supposed to do for childcare? If my employer says I can’t take the week off - well, unfortunately, I will be, as I can’t leave three children at home. I’m not being difficult, I genuinely have nowhere and no one to send them to. I wish I did.

is there some magical Christmas childcare solution I’m missing? Please enlighten me 😩

You could discretely ask the nursery employees if they are interested in looking after the children at your house, for a handsome remuneration. A few of my friends with no family childcare options often have the nursery staff babysit, and are extremely grateful to them.

I won’t be moving areas or having my contract terminated but thank you 😉

i haven’t tried the private school, thank you for that suggestion!!

Someone I know off just turned around and told her employer she couldn't work for 6 weeks as she had no childcare due to a family emergency on her husband's side. The employer could do SFA.

The husband was the one who had planned to take a month off to look after their children but one of his parents got very ill abroad, so he flew out. The parent then died.

Is the nursery completely closed over the Christmas period. Three children under 6 is always going to be difficult. Didn't you think of that.

www.childcare.co.uk

you can find babysitters on this website - some will have DBS one will have references etc

I think safe and looked after children are more important than the "respect of her colleagues".

It should be more on employers' radar than it currently is, that parents have 11 - 12 weeks of the year to cover for childcare, there are options for most of the year but Christmas and the long stretch of school holidays are the most difficult.

If the OP has no option, I would lose respect for an employer who refused flexibility, and any colleagues who judged a working mother trying to make it work.

Her children will only be in this position for a limited number of years.

There are SO many jobs that don’t close over Christmas.

Contact a local college and find a student or two doing Childcare who is off over Christmas?

Post out on a local Facebook page?

Pretty much where I’m at. Thank you.

Come on this is a stretch. Nobody is irreplaceable in the workplace. Might be a bit of a pain getting someone else trained up etc, but in the long run if it’s somebody who is able to work Christmas meaning either they are not short staffed trying to cover them, or it means the leave can be shared more equally amongst the team with everyone getting some of the time, then yes, on the whole the team would be better off.

Or they do care, but also want time off with their families?

Where I used to work we closed for Xmas but that meant I only had 16 days AL for the rest of the year. Where I now work we have to have skeleton staff for Xmas. Last year we were required in all the days. This year I can take 2 off. My colleague has kids too. Luckily we can wfh and so can DH but he can usually take most of it off anyway

In my profession for lots of reasons it would likely be a woman of childbearing age who was my eventual replacement so I rather suspect this is a societal issue, not just limited to me and my area…

@Christmaschildcare have you thought about advertising for a student who has finished college / uni to babysit your kids as that could be an option when they are looking at earning money.

Are we seriously at a point where we are suggesting parents quit their long term careers rather than be able to organise a couple of weeks off at the end of the year?

Astounding.

Start your own maybe?

No, but what equally would not be fair is if the women (or men) who do not have children get no time off over Christmas because the women that do are given priority for the time off.

Yeah I think the "But a lot of people who don't have kids really don't care." comment is unfair.

Most of us without kids have genuinely had to cover lots of things to help parents out, over our careers. For instance, I am aleady on call from 2nd Dec through to the 26th, because some of the days are mine as per the rota (fair enough) and because parents in the team all want consideration for the fact that they cannot be called away from their children over Christmas. It's understandable from their POV but it leaves me carrying the full can.

They've all tried pushing for me to take on call Boxing Day also - and I've had to draw a line.

It's not that we don't care. It's just that there comes a point in our careers where we've had decades of being the ones left holding the fort though multiple generations of young children.

It sucks doesn't it, and there appears to be little sympathy. I am lucky as my DD nursery is only closed 1 week during Christmas. I am wating to see if work will approve my Christmas leave.

Call in sick if you have too, what else can you do? if you tried all other options.

What sort of pointless nursery isn't open in the school holidays?!

I couldn't have gone back to work a few years ago if this was true of our local nursery, it would have been impossible as there is no guarantee of getting annual leave when you want it at my job.

I wish more employers offered term time only working patterns, that would be a dream!

It was a stress every year!

When my kids were younger we both worked in jobs where it was near on impossible to get leave over the Xmas period. Like you there were no clubs in the Xmas holidays. I just had to beg for help. Friends and grandparents but I also had 3 so it was logistically a nightmare sometimes and I was always absolutely knackered.

When my kids were small (last one finished nursery about five years ago) none of the local nurseries were open between Christmas and New Year. Ours would generally close around the 21st and reopen the first working day after New Year. That was pretty standard, and for lots of us covering the holiday period was stressful as we are in an area where most folk don't have lots of family nearby.

It's such a relief to now have much older children and a more flexible job that means I can WFH while they are at home during the holidays rather than try to patch together childcare (and listen to people with no imaginations say "just do x unavailable thing..."

So would you rather people phone in sick, leaving the managers in the shit then work together with the team? asking who is able to work etc to make it fair.

If someone can't find childcare then they can't, provisions need to be made.

Not even going to mention the bonkers approach to childcare in this country but have one suggestion. Find a local university student home for Christmas, ideally one you know, ideally who has done some voluntary work which gives them disclosure, pay them a reasonable amount.
Otherwise and longer term one of you retrains as a teacher/school librarian/school business manager and gets the same holiday as your children.

Solidarity, OP. We have a wonderful holiday club here which is open every day of every holiday. Except the Christmas holidays.