Help! No childcare...

[Nochildcare]

First time posting!

I really need some suggestions with what people do for childcare over the school holidays.

Half my childcare plans for the school holidays has fell through. There's no after school service and I work 8-6 three days a week.

I'm at a loss I don't know what to do for childcare. My dm will take my dc half the school holidays. My holidays only cover 3 weeks and I've already used them for school holidays.

I can't go term time in work or work from home. Holiday clubs are £££ a week! And pay childcare for younger dc so I can't afford it.

Anyone have suggestions?

Tia x

This is your answer…….

The ones at new year and xmas are 'compulsory' as where I work is closed

So how many days a week are you stuck?

So as an example, one friend DH works one month away one home. Friend works three days a week.

So I have hers, holidays, or from school, the months he is away.

I don't need that back. But when dad is home he does the club runs, and they both do ad hoc help days.

It works fab

Pay for holiday clubs, I no you say most finish at school finish time but that means you obviously use the few that open later. Or their dad takes unpaid leave as he’s self employed and he can do that.

If you only get 15% back from UC then why not use tax free childcare and get 20%?

Well no point in cancelling we won't get anything back

I work 4 days, DH does five days, we don't have a lot of family help. You just have to work it out. PP's have given some good suggestions.

You've got to reframe it as only your problem. I know you mentioned your husband in later posts when people asked but it's very telling that your OP made you sound like a single parent.

If you work 3 days a week could your husband take 1-2 days off so holiday club is reduced? Could he work weekend days so he can have days off in the week.

Either he works less or you pay for childcare.

The 3 I work. I work Tues- Thurs so most of the long weekends I'm already off. Was the main reason I took those days off.

Well your holidays cover 3 weeks, DH covers a week or two, and your mum covers half the holidays. So realistically, how many weeks of 3 days are you stuck for?

You’d get leave back, if you and your partner are both taking two weeks then one of you can cancel your leave and take the two weeks in other holidays instead, that’s two weeks holiday club money saved. If you can’t afford holiday clubs then this is a sensible idea.

We mostly cover the holidays by splitting the weeks up between us. When they were younger we had to use holiday clubs and it was so expensive but we had no choice. Now they are a bit older and we can work some days from home we don't have to use childcare in the holidays which is great but there were a fair number of years where we were paying for nursery/childminder/holiday club and it was killer on the finances.

Unpaid parental leave

It's a nightmare. You can ask work for unpaid leave for childcare?

That’s all well and good but can you see why this sits ill with saying-

1. that you don’t have enough a.l. to cover the holidays and
2. that you can’t afford childcare?

You’ve made a choice to use annual leave in an inefficient way, and to spend money elsewhere.

Surely your DH can just take more time off work to cover the times you (as a couple) don’t have childcare, or alternatively can work more to raise more money? That’s the beauty of being self employed- it’s flexible!

This. I’m a teacher so it’s not an issue we have but I take my niece and nephew frequently during summer hols, I’ve got a lot of teacher friends who help out relatives and friends like this and other friends who book separate annual leave and do childcare swaps.

We would save up over the course of the year to pay for holiday clubs.

It really helps to get think of the cost as amortized over the cost of the year. Yes, costs are high in particular months, but most of the time costs are low once children are school aged. So the average cost per week for childcare isn’t so bad.

This!

What do you want people to say OP?

Everyone is giving you solutions but you dont seem to want to listen.

Can you book holiday clubs and then put the annual leave in for an early finish hours. So for example, if you need to finish 2 hours early, take those as annual leave meaning youve covered a week with just one day of leave. Thats what I do

Its expensive but you have between now and August to save. Beyond a magic wand there are no other solutions than have been suggested here.

What do your DC's friends' parents do for childcare? Maybe they know of a good and affordable option?

If you only work 3 days per week, 16 days is over 5 weeks (not 3 weeks)

You book this half term and your DH does Xmas? He'd got enough notice!!

Honestly, @Nochildcare if you want the solution to be free childcare then the only option for you would be to offer to mind somebody else’s child for free on the Monday or the Friday so that they in return couldn’t mind your child one of the days of the week that you’re stuck, that’s if they also work part time. What day of the week do you definitely have sorted with grandparents and what day of the week are you stuck?

Can you work the 2 days you don’t currently work until the summer. Even If not in your main job get a second one and you’ll have more funds for holiday clubs?

If your DH is self-employed, he can cancel his easter holiday and save the time off for the summer.

If that doesn't work because it's his parents and summer is his busiest time, you'll have to cancel your easter holiday, let him take them up and save the time off for the summer holiday.

The lost cost of your easter holiday is because of the grandparent being unable to offer free childcare any longer. It'll still be cheaper than paying out of pocket for holiday clubs. It'll be money lost rather than more outlay.

During the summer holidays (7 weeks), we do a family holiday which covers 2 weeks, my mum takes the kids for 1 week, we cover another week by taking 2/3 days each. That leaves 3 weeks which the kids do holiday clubs in. Mix of more expensive ones like Kings Camp and local offerings. We claim tax free childcare for them which takes 20% off.