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

3 weeks to use as I please yes as I work in a nursery and use holidays for when the nursery is closed over xmas and new year

Scotland's age cut-offs are different from England. February born children will be the youngest in their school year, so it's quite common for parents to defer if their child has a February birthday.

What have you done in previous years if you have a 9 year old?

We don't have any family support for childcare. Our child also has additional needs which limits things like holiday clubs and summer camps.

We both work full time and...

Rarely take time off at the same time. We alternate days/weeks.
Stagger our shifts - husband will work early, I will work late, or vice versa.
Work flexibly. I will often take the day off and then work late afternoon into the evening once husband is home.
Accrue TOIL through overtime.

Edit: just seen you work in childcare. Is a term time only role something you could explore?

OP, if you are on a low household income there may be schemes open to you over the holidays. I believe that children who are entitled to free school meals (pupil premium?) in England have access to quite a few council schemes.
I don't know if something like that is available in Scotland.

I am a lone parent working full time. My son is older now, but it was hard for many years.

Why isn't your DH sorting this out with you? Your children have 2 parents, what's HE doing towards fixing this gap in childcare?

Most people on here don't understand the Scottish system OP so posters who mention it always get a hard time. Kids born in January and February are allowed to defer automatically, and I think if they're born in November or December they can defer under some circumstances (a friend of mine was the year below me at school but her birthday is the day after mine, so this has been the case for many years here).

I think unfortunately either way you are going to lose money - whether that's taking unpaid leave, paying for holiday clubs or your husband taking more time off. It's worth doing the calculation of what would lose you the least.

My dad fell ill and can no longer take dc. So first year of having to find other arrangements

Definitely! I think my son would have been fine academically but would have struggled emotionally at drop offs etc had I sent him in at 4.5. He went in on his first day all excited and didn’t even say goodbye, just joined the line and went in without a backward glance 😆. There’s no way he would have done that if I had put him in the previous year.

One of the boys in his class was speech delayed and was 7 past October, they are in P2. Not sure if you know but there is an FB group called Deferral Scotland (I think) that might be worth joining if you haven’t already. Also there was evidence in that group that although they can be fine at Primary level it’s when they go to secondary that the age difference is more noticeable. I know with some Scottish councils if your child isn’t 5 on the day they start school you can defer them to the following year so you have a potential almost 6 year old with 4.5 year olds and that’s a big difference

I hope your dad recovers soon, OP.

It's daunting but you've got a few months yet to save up for holiday camps or other childcare. Maybe your DH could take on more work or get another job alongside his self-employed work, or could you take on some extra shifts?

Gosh that's rude!!

Maybe you can't afford to defer your child starting school. My elder 2 turned 4 late March and late May respectively. They had to where I am. Didn't do them a button of harm.

Maybe you could get a student or perhaps an NQT? Though you would have to pay them.

We had to manage our three children with no grandparents, and both working FT. You just have to figure it out! We had to pay for childcare and we couldn't get UC or any other benefits either.

It's what I used to do. Always worked it fine for us.

Oh thank you so much for this! It's such a big decision my eldest was born in April meaning he was going to be one of the oldest and was an easier decision to make. I will definitely be looking the fb group up.

It's better for the child to be the oldest rather than the youngest in the class so maybe it's worth spending the money?

No what is rude is judging me for deferring my child.

I'm also assuming your not in scotland. It is different here.

No option to book the 4yo in to work with you on your working days?

Could your dh switch to a Friday-Monday working week (seeing as SE) during the summer holidays, and then he has tue-thur off?

I'd either see if there are any childminders with space
Or, a local student.

He attends a different nursery (it's so hard having your child in same nursery as you i done it with my eldest and it was so hard to stay professional as you get to know the parents that dont give a shit if they hurt other children plus my dm helps out with school pick ups and nursery is across the road from school so she picks him up too)

Here’s the link to the group https://www.facebook.com/groups/1680426968699639/

Also my son’s friend just turned 6 a couple of weeks ago and there are times I notice a difference between them as he is into things that my son is no longer interested in. While it is only 10 months of a difference it is very noticeable at that age.

Another reason why I deferred was that I didn’t want him to be the youngest out of his friends to learn to drive, go out drinking, if he went to Uni he wouldn’t be able to go to Freshers week. You know all the important things 😆

I'm confused by OP saying she only gets 3 weeks holiday. I know Scotland has different employment laws but the EU statutory minimum is about 4 weeks. In England it's 28 days inclusive of bank holidays.

Working part time does mean that holiday is pro rated but should allow for the same number of weeks off as a full time worker.

If you were in England with the basic 28 days, working 3 days a week would give you 16.8 days holiday. BUT that's the same number of weeks off as a FT person.

If you booked a week off work you are actually only booking off the 3 days you usually work. A full time worker needs to book 5 days from their allowance.

I appreciate this doesn't cover all the school holidays, which are crazily long, but thought other may also be confused by your post.

Why do people assume your SE so you can take unpaid holidays as much as you want?

@Nochildcare I think its a good idea to defer. I did with my daughter and it was the best decision she turns 6 tomorrow and is in p1 (we are Scotland aswell)she is doing amazing . I have a older child who I wished I deferred but didn't and it wasn't until secondary school the problems were shown for exams.

Scotland is usually last week june, all July and first half of august. One of my kids birthday 17th Aug and hated they always back at school for birthday.

Quick crash course for those who aren’t familiar with England and Scotland school
year differences.

England school year starts in September, and cut off for ages is start of the school year in September.

Scotkand school year starts in August and cut off is end of Feb. So Jan / Feb Scottish kids are the July / august ones in England.

Deferral is far more common in Scotland. To the extent that you automatically get funded nursery hours for anyone who’s birthday is after the school year starts.

Deferring Feb babies is very very very common

Fab thank you!

You have made me feel so much better about deferral, it's definitely not just about now you need to think of it's later in life for them too, so hard to think of them at that age when they're still so wee!