Childcare during school holidays

[MumEve]

Not sure if this query should be posted here or on the childminder thread, but I would like to hear from other working mumsnetters what arrangements they make during school holidays. Up until now my DS has been in a lovely nursery but he is due to start 'big' school this year and I'm not sure how to go about setting up some kind of childcare for school holidays. I am in a position to finish work at 3pm so school days won't be a problem but I was wondering how other working mums cope with school holidays - I don't have any family nearby to lend a hand. I do know that there are holiday camps for the odd week but this doesn't seem a long term solution - are there childminders who look after children only in the holidays? Will I have to arrange a permanent childminder for after school until say 5pm in order to have the facility to use the child minder during the holidays?

we hit this in sept too. will pay cm for 13 or so weeks care but will also take our hols in this time too. the time we don't use cm for will cover inset days etc.

a friend works the hols by using hers and dh a/l they take a main hol altogether and then split a/l across school hols. for them this leaves 2 -3 weeks where the dcs go to a summer camp and a half term camp.

theres two options..

Come on then, what do you think she would say?

We ended up with a patchwork - me taking holidays, DH taking holidays, holiday care at the school, DS going to grandparents for a few days, etc, etc - it's a nightmare.

It would certainly be worth contacting your local childrens information service to see if there are any childminders who would do it - for example, if they have pre-school children whose parents are teachers, they may have vacancies in the holiday.

Otherwise, does your DS's current nursery do holiday/after school care, in which case he might be able to go back there? My DD is going to nursery when I go back to work in a few weeks and the manager has already said that they would be happy to take DS (4.5) in the holidays - so hopefully my patchwork will be a little less complicated this summer than it was last summer (made worse by the fact that we moved in the middle of the summer!)

As for what Xenia would say - "get a better job and a nanny" ?

Thanks for the messages, much appreciated. There isn't a 'one size fits all' approach is the consensus I guess and each family seems to work out what suits the family and of course, most importantly, the child.

I think for me stability would be key, so I'm going to locate a more or less permanent childminder as a backstop weekdays if needed and for holidays as well.

Since posting I've been doing my homework as well and it looks like I might even have found the perfect person who lives locally and who I know already (though I didn't know she was interested in childminding..) Wish me luck and thanks again!