Splitting rest of my annual leave? Shall I just have a summer holiday blow out?

[hollybollyyy]

Deciding how to best use the rest of my annual leave.

I have 20 days left to take between now and April next year. I don’t work weekends and I get every second Friday off.

I have 2 kids so I am trying to be mindful and thinking about taking more the usual over the 6 weeks holidays to spend time with them.

Debating between taking 2 weeks off straight, or a few weeks where I have book 3 days off after the weekend and so end up with say 3 weeks in a row where I just work 2 days a week.

or shall I be more frugal and save some days for October/Christmas?

I just can’t decide! I kind of want to have quite a bit of time off over the summer to switch off and chill but worried I’ll regret it when I don’t have much time left to book off.

How do you all split your leave across the year when you have kids?

I do a lot of half days work the morning and then go out and do something fun with the afternoon. I find that makes my leave go further.

I tend to book 2 solid weeks so for example I have a week off in August and a week off in October

I tend to save some leave so I can have the time off between Christmas and new year

The rest of it is used as days here and there so I tack them onto bank holidays

My kids are a lot older now and don’t need supervision but sometimes it’s nice to take a day off and go and do something together

I haven’t tended to take 2 weeks straight off but I feel like it would be nice to do it and just completely switch off work for a while! As opposed to taking days here and there, which is nice but don’t seem to fully switch off!

A few half days could work as my husband tends to work late shifts so he would be here all morning then I could take over so that would be could from a childcare point of view!

I work 4 days per week, but this is what I do
1 or 2 days Feb HT
2 or 3 days Easter
Full week May HT (we go abroad)
1 week + couple of odd days in Summer
Full week + 1 TED Oct HT (we go abroad)
3 or 4 days at Xmas depending on how it falls

This usually leaves me 1 or 2 days to have my birthday off etc or a random day to go to a spa!

DP basically does the same but will have a different week off in the Summer and different days in the half terms and Easter to cover more childcare, will have less days than me at Xmas usually. May and October are when we are off together and we go abroad. In the summer we will go to relatives in UK and will cross over at the weekend.

Its not perfect but gives us a healthy mix of holidays, covering childcare, etc. Usually only use holiday club for a couple of days at Easter and 2 or 3 weeks in the summer.

Where I work you would have no hope of booking two weeks off in summer hols at this late stage. Have you factored that in, or is it not an issue where you work?

My team is quite small and most have already booked in their leave so there would be a chance for me to have 2 weeks off!

I use most of my leave for childcare tbh, and have a blowout in March if there any left. I do like to keep a bunch in reserve though in case of mild emergencies

I have 20 after bank holidays and if that has to last you another 8-9 months it's not that many tbh. I'd take Feb and Oct half terms (that's 8-10 days depending on which Friday they fall on). Some for Christmas- my work closes between Christmas and NY but I usually take 2 or 3 days to extend the break. Easter holiday next year starts on 30 March so will depend on if you mean your holiday renews on 1 April?

I always keep a couple till late in the year just in case.