To ask how you feel about school holidays?

[Justformenow]

Especially if your children are young (reception / KS1 age.)

I am kind of looking forward to mine starting reception but dreading the long holidays as well.

@autisticbookworm
Everyone would be trying to have their summer holidays within the 3 weeks??
And 3 weeks at Xmas when its cold, gets dark early, cant just be outside in the park playing?
No thanks!

I love them. I’m a teacher and they’re my chance to catch up on everything and enjoy time with my children. It makes the relentlessness of teaching worth it.

I can see that the school holidays would perhaps be a chore if you are a sahm or a term time worker. My sisters (as above) both complain the summer holidays are too long and costs them too much to entertain the dcs.

Whereas I work ft. I'm fortunate that I have 27 days plus BH and can nearly always have at least 1 day off per school holiday so I enjoy my day off with the dcs. Unless DP is off the dcs will then be at holiday clubs or do a day at home with me whilst I wfh. Also, if dcs have 3ish days at holiday club they're quite happy to just chill at home/go to local park on my day of al so I can have a cheap day.

I absolutely loved them.

I really enjoyed the quality time I had with my children and that they had with each other.

We'd fill the days with walks and car picnics and Lego villages and jigsaw walls and dens and reading and PJ days and board games and role plays and story making and Wii dance and cooking and karaoke and world hunts and libraries and so many other things.

I'm a teacher too.

I always enjoy the Easter break (we get 2 weeks) but 6 weeks of summer is too long. I’m skint by the end of it and the kids have had enough of eachother and tbh I’ve had enough of them 😊

Ice cream money isn’t free- sometimes paying for parking in these places isn’t free. Ice creams are £3.50 per ice cream now

Mine used to get 12 weeks off in the summer when we lived in Spain. I loved it, as did they!

I absolutely loved them! Especially the long summer holiday.

No morning stress. I’m lucky living very close to the beach so that probably helps!

Our school puts all the inset days in August

Are you in England??

I love the holidays. Esp now kids are older and sleep in. Love not rushing dinner or strict bedtimes. We spend lots of time at the beach

I love it when kids are off school, even though we both work FT so have to organise childcare. So nice to not have to worry about uniform and the rush to do everything between end of school and bedtime. More relax on bedtime as well.
Indie school so we have 3 1/2 weeks at Christmas and Easter and 8 weeks for Summer (plus the 1w half terms).

I love that there is less rushing around and we can spend some time together without having to worry about homework, clubs and prepping for the next day. I used to love them more when the kids were both younger but now I have a teenager it is hard to find things that they both want to do together so that makes it more difficult.

This is great advice, we do similar. I also make lists of good weather things and bad weather things as sometimes I get blinkerd and can't see past 'there's nothing to do' feeling if I'm particularly stressed.

DH and I also take a few days and week each. As in, it's not day after day of monotony, I find that hard, but knowing I am at work 2 or 3 days a week a nice respite.

But yes, it's hard. I've got a 3 and 6 year old

When I worked in a school, the long summer was great, time off with the kids and much needed break from work (stresses of teaching shouldn’t be underestimated!).

now I wfh but kids are older so I can let them play in the garden, get their own snacks and take them to the park in my lunch break. I miss the time off with them though.

Working away from home makes the holidays an expensive and stressful juggling act so I do agree that the summer hols would be better reduced (4 weeks). The kids are usually desperate to get back to routine then anyway.

I wouldn’t mind an extra week at Christmas either - a week to recover first week of Jan would be great! If you are a sahm with spending money, I can totally understand why the long hols are good 😊

I loved having an extended summer with my children when they were small. There are lots of inexpensive local things that are imports for growing up. Endless hours on the beach, dog walks, camping in the garden, cooking, craft, a free flow of children coming for sleepovers, quality time with grandparents…. We are now in the teenage years, so it’s not quite the same, but they are wonderfully independent and sensible.

I always struggled with the 6 week holidays when my eldest was at school, due to her disabilities it was too long for her to be out of her routine and difficult to entertain her. We managed with holiday clubs, carers and extra help from family once my parents had retired. Youngest has her birthday in the 6 week holidays so she has that to look forward to as well as time with me. The next step is to find things that don't cost too much and get the youngest to accept no for an answer without getting upset that we don't have the time or money to do what she asks for straight away!

I love them.

I get a generous amount of annual leave and use 95% of it in the school holidays and I can usually get the time off I want because I book well in advance.

My children are 10 and 7 and a lot of fun to be around at the moment.

My ex husband also has them for about 30% of the holidays (as opposed to 20% in term time). This means that on those weeks I’m not rushing around to and from work and have evenings to myself. Obviously my ex and I don’t take holidays together now so I don’t have to consider his diary. One of the few advantages of being divorced.

I put money aside every month into my childcare voucher account direct from my salary so I don’t miss the money and when I pay for holiday clubs it’s not a big hit all at once.

Love the summer holidays in particular as usually you get a few days of good weather. Although we are also on holiday this week and the weather is glorious!

I think my problem is I find my own children more stressful than other peoples 😂

I dread them. I need time on my own and during the holidays I get none of it during the day and am consequently exhausted by the time the kids go to bed. (DS has ASD and has been kicked out of holiday camps so they’re not an option and we have no family close to help out.)

It's our first year with our child in school. Holidays are a juggle to say the least. We both work full time, it's been manageable for the holidays so far but the six week summer break is just going to be stressful. And yes I know before any one bleats out ' but school isn't childcare' (by default they are looking after said child though)

I LOVE the holidays. Love the lazier days, feeling like the children can actually be children and let their minds expand into the space, rather than the crushing days of school. I would take a week off the summer holidays and tack it into May half term

My kids are long grown up but we loved the long summer holidays. It didn't have to be expensive. More time off in winter was a drag as nowhere to go unless you like endless cold, muddy walks. Also with only 3 weeks off, trying to actually get time off to have a summer break would get harder and everywhere would be rammed. We would lose a lot of teachers too as that's the only great thing about the job

Those days are long gone but I loved the holidays. I'm all for longer summer holidays not shorter. We had 8-9 weeks in NI when I was growing up.

I really like them. I find I miss the kids when they’re at school all the time so I enjoy the lazy quiet mornings and days out. That being said, I think the 6 weeks is too long.

Ours in Canada are 9 or 10 weeks every summer depending on how the teachers’ contract falls. Six, to me, almost seems too short. But I love them being off in the warm, sunny months and now I work in education so I enjoy the break.