Summer Holidays - Holiday clubs

[BlackCatGreyWhiskers]

I keep seeing articles and discussions about whether or not the summer holidays should be shorter because of the challenges of childcare.

I accept childcare is a challenge, for me it’s largely a logistical one - it’s just organising it. Last year my older child was in holiday clubs and younger one nursery. With some annual leave used either end of the holiday. This year my younger one went to a term time only preschool and is too young for clubs so I’m having to use a sitter and pay per the hour, which is expensive.

But next year, they can both go to clubs and the issue will be largely resolved. The clubs finish slightly earlier than after school club but only by 1.5 hours.

Clubs are around £30 per day, per child. So not cheap but equally we’re not paying nursery fees now so 4 weeks (using annual leave for some of the hols) of clubs doesn’t seem too bad.

I know some jobs are more challenging to accommodate than others. IMO what we really need is more flexible employers who understand the constraints for a short period of the year rather than shorter holidays.

Theres loads of clubs near me for school age children - is this not the norm? Genuinely interested. As for me the summer holidays are a challenge, but not an insurmountable one.

This is the thing, most employed jobs are not like this.

I do think families need to think about their child’s need for an actual break - obviously there will be some where neither parent can be off work at all or the only parent cannot be, and where there are no grandparents etc to help, but hopefully not too many.

But if parents can take time off in the hols they definitely should prioritise that, and consider taking time off separately to give their kids more of a break from structured time. The OP the other week who had school aged kids but wanted to take her time off in Sept so that she got a proper break should definitely not be the model! Esp if that means holiday clubs all the way through.

Parents should make more use of the unpaid leave they are entitled to.

I'm a teacher so I don't need childcare until the end of the holidays for a week, where I've found a club that runs 7.30-6, which is good.
Mostly they run 10-4, some with early starts or late finishes for a fee. Most of my non teacher friends are able to get some flexibility with their employers to make that work, but my husband would be unable to do so with his employer, if it wasn't for me!
I have other friends who just take two weeks unpaid parental leave every summer holiday, and juggle the rest. Usually using me as childcare 😂😭

I’m lucky to have a flexible manager

holiday club is 8:45 to 5:15 so I need an hour out of the working day to collect my son. I then log in from home to make up the hour.

the only full time days till 6 are at nurseries who accept older children but they can’t provide the entertainment that a regular holiday club does

I don't want the hols to change but I've had to change jobs to fit around childcare because we moved a year ago from an area in London where childcare was available 52 weeks of the year from 8-6 and there were plenty of short term options as well, all sorted from baby age upwards, to the midlands (not rural, just a reasonable sized town) where childcare is 8-4:30 term time only with nebulous sports clubs for the holidays and nothing takes kids under 5. With a 3 and 5 year old I'm stuffed. Every parent around here that I've spoken to has said that 8-6 childcare and proper holiday clubs (especially for kids who aren't sporty) would be life-changing, but it just doesn't exist.
It's ironic that London is closing schools because people can't afford to live there with kids, but they've still got the best childcare offerings in the country.

In an ideal world 🤣

@Fourteenandahalf as a teacher and a parent I’m interested to hear your views/experience of the holidays?

You do have a statutory entitlement to annual leave, so it’s not unique. People who can’t take leave at all, will be the exception not the norm.

Well I don't want the hols to change , because I wouldn't do the job without that perk! My school has a four week break.

It is even more complicated if you have a secondary aged child who still needs childcare as it pretty much doesn't exist!

I do agree with you that I don’t think the existence of school holidays is the issue. Children and school staff need, and should have, breaks.

But I do find holiday childcare incredibly stressful and we aren’t even in a rural area.

What I find tough is:

1. The timings of holiday camps - very very few match up to a standard working day, and my DS absolutely detests the only one near us that does.
2. On top of the timings, holiday camps are much further from our house than DS’ school is - so there’s a much longer journey to contend with.
3. The expense - yes, the day rate of most camps is generally cheaper than nursery, but nursery does run from 8-6 and feeds them at least two meals!
4. DS likes to go to ones his friends are going to, which I totally get, but I find it a Herculean effort to coordinate with other families.
5. The competition for annual leave in school holidays at work.

I find it all very tricky to be honest. Not insurmountable, but very challenging - to the point that I’ve had a lot of anxiety about it. And that’s in a two parent household with reasonably flexible-ish jobs in a fairly populated area.

Do anyone's kids actually enjoy holiday clubs? Mine went for the first time last summer, it was really expensive and they both hated it. We've managed to avoid using them this year through a mixture of annual leave, parental leave and help from grandparents (I appreciate we are lucky to have that option).

@Geneticsbunny because of additional needs? I imagine that’s challenging!

The provision just needs to be consistent, where we are holiday clubs are available in all school holidays other than the a few days over Christmas 7:30am-6pm. Then there are others which are more specific sports camps etc that tend to run until 5ish , we chose to both condense 5 days into 4 so DH and I are available Mondays and Fridays for holiday care but also pick ups and after school activities away from school grounds.
Near us there is also a spy camp , two big holiday clubs, football camp, athletics camp, Lego club which does mornings and arts and crafts club which does afternoons but you can pay for them to stay at lunch and do both (same venue) , for older ones there are other sports camps there is also an off road cycling club that operates full days, but I think that's probably quite fortunate and not as likely in rural areas. We are in commuter territory for London so nearly all families have two working parents.
I just have a spreadsheet my summer childcare is usually booked by may half term.

I think the problem is that in a lot of workplaces - including my own - lots of people want annual leave during school holidays, especially in summer. So it’s not quite as simple as saying ‘just cover some of it using annual leave’.

@LavenderHaze19 i do find I get in a fluster when planning everything and organising my DH. His days off aren’t fixed and change around and he can be thoughtless sometimes in changing days. I get a wall planner out and go through it and organise my work and childcare. Once I’ve done it, I’m fine, but I do find the process stressful. This year I’ve used a sitter to patch together days and that’s been a huge (but expensive) help. I have found a TA who is obviously off and realised there are loads on childcare.co.uk who are in the same boat.

@OakAshRowan my son does enjoy them aslong as they aren’t there too much. He has asked to go even when he’s not needed to.

Our independent school used to run free of charge activity weeks throughout the holidays. Rural area with zero council/free provision. Thanks to VAT they aren't now running these which has a huge impact on local working parents + their children.

No - both me and my DH have the same issue. I do understand the challenges.

We're lucky that the playschemes are free in my area, but only run 10am-3pm, and the only other options are 25 minutes away (in the opposite direction to where I work). They're £30-60 a day and most still only run 9-4. The £60 one is 8-5.30 I think. As someone else has said though, mine absolutely hate clubs.

We manage with a mix of annual leave, grandparents and working from home with the kids watching TV, but mine are older so not really an issue.

In addition to what you say, I think also in the 80s and 90s people were more likely to live near their extended families, grandparents tended to be a bit younger, and extended families and friendship groups tended to have more SAHPs in them - my mum worked PT in the 90s and I’d often spend days during the holidays with grandparents (who lived nearby) and friends who had SAHMs or mums who worked PT - then my mum would return the favour on her non-working days.

Yes, it can be quite tricky and political.

Also - I’m very sympathetic to two parent families wanting some holiday time all together, rather than having to take all their AL separately to cover the school holidays.

It’s not insurmountable for me either. My children both struggle with school, particularly my eldest, so I love the summer holidays. I don’t want them to be shorter because my children need the break, they are less stressed and I do enjoy the time with them. I also think the long holidays are a major reason why some teachers stay in the job and we can’t afford to keep losing good teachers. I like to be organised and plan what we are doing some time in advance. I don’t find it a massive problem. The only issue with that is my exh who takes ages to confirm when he wants his time with the kids.

We are lucky around here that there are some decent holiday clubs that run 8am - 6pm. But many of them do just run 9-3. Mine don’t love going but I’ve found one which they don’t hate at least. It’s helpful that my two will go together so they know someone. Although I will have to find another club in a couple of years as my oldest is 10 and the one they are at today stops taking them at 11 and I doubt I would leave him all day by himself by then.

I find a lot of the holiday clubs are sporty ones. People assume that children all love sports, particularly boys.

I use childcare vouchers for the holiday clubs so the same amount comes out of my salary every month, so I don’t miss the money. I save it up so paying for it isn’t a big shock. I know these aren’t available for new joiners.

The rest I juggle with annual leave, occasional help from my mum and my exh covers some time too. My mum helps me with a couple of school pick ups a week in term time but I wouldn’t ask her to have them all day during the holidays, it would be too much for her, and my ex in laws definitely wouldn’t manage.

I’m lucky in that I have never struggled with getting the time off work that I need but that’s probably because a) I book it some time in advance and b) plenty of people in my team don’t have school age children so they prefer time off at other times of the year.

Holidays aren't a huge problem for us as my husband is a SAHD, plus we're in a big city with lots of clubs, and we can afford them, but I am genuinely shocked that it's not obvious to you that holiday childcare would be a problem for a lot of people 🤔

Lots of employers genuinely can't offer flexible working as they need to cover specific hours. Lots of parents commute to work. I'm sure that there are plenty of areas outside the big cities where there isn't much childcare provision. And if parents are on minimum wage they would struggle to pay for it anyway (unfortunately most clubs are more than £30 a day).

(Edited for typo)

We've got plenty of options but they're not all day - DC are at a sports one today that's 9-3.30pm so I'm taking my "lunch break" at the end of the day so they don't just sit on screens for an hour+ or annoy each other so I have to keep intervening. I've got the flexibility to do that but the knock on effect is that the stuff I usually do on my lunch breaks - pick up essentials from the shop, exercise, clean up - all gets shoved to either end of the day when I'm knackered! The only option nearby that does a full day which I need for my office day is £45 a day each. I'm lucky I only have to go in one day a week. We can afford it but it's still a lot on top of wraparound care costs during term time, at least with private nursery they had long hours and I didn't have to make packed lunches!

Leave has to be shared fairly across colleagues - we've got 3 parents and then 2 people married to teachers in our team, all of whom want time off during the holiday and then 28 days leave doesn't stretch far over all the school holiday. Luckily the colleagues without kids/teacher partners are happy to cover and go away when it's cheaper! Parental leave is great but it's unpaid, lots of people can't afford to not get paid for a week or two.