Single parents and summer holidays

[ineedasleep]

Hi all,

I know I’m getting ahead of myself as my son is only starting school this September but for next summer, how the hell do single parents get care for their child during the 6 weeks holiday?

I’ll be working full time and his dad has no contact.

I could perhaps get a family remember to watch my son for a couple of days throughout the summer holidays, but what am I supposed to do? I don’t think I’d feel comfortable leaving my son with other parents from the school and doing childcare day exchanges. I’m sure there’s programmes out there etc and I know costs will vary from place to place but I’m just trying to wrap my head around it all.

Thank you.

Expensive holiday clubs and some leave.
It's very hard.
Also lone parent with no family support.

Honestly.
I worked from home with 3 kids until my youngest went to school.

Then quit that job and took a very low paying job as a TA in a special needs school.

But I do have a husband but he is completely unable to help over holidays. And even with 2 incomes we couldn't afford childacr3 for the 3 so I did what I had to.

A mix of time off, family help if you have any, block booking holiday club to make it cheaper and play date swaps with other parents in need of childcare. If you can do any work from home there is always the digital babysitter too. Make their lunch before you start work so that is another distraction while you crack on.

Mine are older now but when they were small, I had to pay eye-watering childminder costs. No family locally and their preschool was term-time only.

You can update the details within Gateway which means you will likely receive some monetary support for the increased costs, but it was so hard... so so hard!

I also took a lot of leave - and celebrated when the holidays were only 5 weeks!

Honestly. I worked from home with 3 kids until my youngest went to school.

What did you do? Did you actually work full time hours while your childeen occupied themselves all day for weeks?

Put a bit if money away each week to cover the very expensive 6 weeks. I was able to take 10 days off, so took a day or two each week to break it up a bit. You need to find a holiday club that does full days, build a relationship with the staff and book ASAP. I used the same holiday club every holiday. I had 3 dc (no support) so at least they were all together. It gets more difficult when dc are late primary/early secondary not able to be left all day, but don't want to spend the day in a holiday club 'for babies'.

You do understand that your experience (having a husband) is not comparable to lone parents, even if he was unable to do any childcare during the holidays?

No shit sherlock. Do you want to tell me the sky's blue as well?

I work annualised hours so get 9 weeks leave. The remaining time I used to 'swap weeks' with 2 other single Mums near me. DD hated it but needs must. DD is older now but I remember the stress of trying to juggle everything... It's really tough.

I was a Sales Manager for a large Pub Compnay. Worked on the phones and took bookings, delt with customer enquiries.

It was full time from 9 am and to 6pm nut the shifts would change within that time.
It was also a rolling contract so as they were open 7 days a week I would work a mix of those, including weekends.

It was hell. They would get bored and my daughter went from 1 to 3 so you can imagine what it was like.

But just had to do it for the financial side.

I am wondering what your contribution to the OP's question is, since your situation is not comparable.

Keep wondering.

No I can't imagine what it would be like to work from 9-6am with a 1 year old.
I simply would not have been able to do it. Not as a lone parent.

Sometimes you can take unpaid leave which might be worth it. At my work you can buy extra leave which comes out of wages across the year. Otherwise Book at least 2 weeks off, book the cheapest club you can find for 2-3 weeks (are you eligible for HAF - they’re free) and try and convince a grandparent or someone to do the final week. I save up throughout the year for it. If he’s been going to nursery then afterschool childcare during the week will feel wonderfully cheap in comparison!

Or explain to me, since you clearly think I'm dim.

Clearly.

OP, how long have you been with this employer ie. are you in a position to negotiate any sort of different work pattern?
Are you in a position to take unpaid parental leave?

This is bizarre.

Op where I am, childcare for six weeks is £750
I can use tax free childcare so that's reduced.
So you need to save each month to cover it I guess. You wouldn't want to keep all your annual leave I suppose because you'll want that for inset days etc throughout. Do you have any family that could help?

I have a job where holidays and other benefits are calculated by how many hours you work the year before so I have a quite low hours contract and just work as many extra hours as I can during term time and then drop to the contracted hours for holidays and childcare swap with friends and family as much as I can but I'm lucky because I do get help from my parents. I try and book them into a couple of club days too. Their dad has them less then ever in the holidays which is very useful. It's a horrible juggling act

Lone parent of 3 here My twins start school in September. - I'm fortunate in my area most schools offer summer holiday clubs and I've probably had emails about two dozen others - all age 4 upwards and actually not as expensive as I thought they'd be - well less than the cost of nursery or childminders anyway and most can be paid through tax free childcare

I take as much leave as I can during the hols - usually nearly 3 weeks and then combo of WFH and grandparents I can usually scrape the rest but from next summer I will use holiday clubs

Your local council website might have details of holiday clubs and playschemes. It was a nightmare generally as often the clubs are 10-4 which really doesn't cut it when you're working full time.

I found a church youth club playscheme in my borough, very reasonably priced and you could pay with childcare vouchers and pay a bit extra for a later pick up. It was an absolute god send and DD for the most part enjoyed it so that was a bonus.