Are school holidays too long, or do kids really need that much time off?

[warrenettie]

Every summer I tell myself I’ll be more organised — plan activities, sort childcare, make it all run smoothly. And yet by week four I’m counting down the days until school starts again.
I get that kids need a break, but six or seven weeks feels like such a long stretch, especially for working parents. By the end of it, everyone’s tired, routines are gone, and screen time has crept way up.
On the other hand, I know some families love the slower pace and the chance to actually relax and spend proper time together. Maybe it’s just the way our work schedules clash with the school calendar that makes it feel harder.
What do you think — are school holidays too long, or is it adults who need to adjust our expectations?

I agree completely. It would be good to have a couple of shut down periods say one or two weeks at Xmas and two weeks before the new school year to give staff time to reset but yes this would work much better.

I agree with this. My DC spend more than enough time at school.

I don't think the problem is the holidays, both of mine are definitely ready for them each time they roll round and tbh would benefit from another week most holidays. The problem and stress comes from juggling and balancing days off, WFH days (they are big enough to entertain themselves if not every days) and days with family or friends as childcare etc. By the end of summer, I'm frazzled from it all, DH has given up trying to keep track and the kids still feel like it's flown by and want more time off!

I don't know whether I'm unusually lucky but in my large town there are lots of options for holiday care in the summer - various holiday clubs, some of which are centred around particular activities (drama, football, etc), some of which are more general. Run by a range of providers - the council does some, our local university has one, there are commercial holiday scheme companies, companies like kids gymnastics or swimming classes do them. I would say that options would be much more limited if you didn't drive, though - if I had to access only by public transport my options would shrink from about 20 to 2 or 3. There are also a lot of options for easter, much fewer for other holidays.

You mean woman, that idea never seems to die womans sole purpose still seems to be breeding and caring

This really. There's a real struggle for working parents trying to cover all the holidays. Childcare provision is expensive, increasingly hard to find and often 'bitty'. 10-3 is no use to anyone who works in an office 9-5 for example.

I'm in a difficult, 'in between' bit where my eldest is 12 Yr 7 and my youngest is 9 Yr5. The eldest is too young to babysit and really hates going to holiday club now and the youngest doesn't want to go without his older sister. We try to juggle working from home and days off, but that leaves the odd day where we both need to go into the office. I've found a holiday club that takes up to 13 year olds and I send them in, blocking out the complaints. Needs must for another year or two.

Who wants an extra week in October/November when it is pissing down with rain and it is cold? Not everyone can afford autumn/winter sun.

As someone who works in a secondary school i can tell you they aren't long enough 🤣

My kids are perfectly happy over the hols, as am I. But they don't need it per se, they're not exhausted etc.

Yes they need the long holidays. They really need them, to give space to recharge and develop as people.

This By the end of it, everyone’s tired, routines are gone, and screen time has crept way up is just a parenting choice. You could do things differently.

I have two weeks at October half-term and 5 weeks in summer and I do like this mix. The only problem is that summer holiday prices would become even higher for those 5 weeks if every school did this. I don’t want two weeks in Feb because Easter moves so can have a shorter half-term anyway and we’re at the business end of the year for GCSEs/A levels so not a good time for the kids to be out of school. Longer in May would mess up exams.

Most countries have much longer, 10 weeks is common. The main problem these days is childcare not length of holidays

Why overworked parents want to raise overworked kids I do not understand. They really, really need that space to grow as people. They're not just mini office workers in training.

The freedom from routines is what gives them chance to be themselves, to work out who they are.

Here's a thought: maybe the teachers need the time off too!

I'm a working, lone parent. Yes, its difficult and I dont really have enough annual leave, its almost all used on covering holidays, but that's not my child's or their teachers' fault. As the parent/s it's on you to be organised - the holidays hardly come as a surprise.

I think 30 days annual leave as standard over 25 would be really helpful. Especially as wage increases aren't keeping up with the cost of living. An extra week not paying for holiday camps and the extra time would be really useful!

This only works if the holidays are free from routine though. If you’re working it can be just a different and more frenetic routine driving your kids to whatever holiday club you can find.

I live in a city and there are plenty of options but they’re mostly useless times (10-3 or less) or somewhere inconvenient or would only work for one of my kids so I’d need to drop them two different places. I’d love a longer summer break but it’s just not practical unless something else changes.

I would shorten them slightly if it were up to me. We have had 7 week summer holidays for the last 3 years and I think it’s too long. I’d probably shorten summer to 4 weeks and October half term to just one week then let everyone have a week they can use whenever they want in the year (including teachers). The problem is most households have 2 working parents now and a lot of areas have absolutely no school holiday childcare provision. We had a holiday club here until about a year ago then it went under so now there is literally nothing. So parents have a really difficult juggling act of favours exchanged with other parents, grandparents, working from home, taking it in turns to have leave. I haven’t had more than 2 days off in a row at all this year. I’m exhausted. I’d also love to be able to spend a week with DC and DH but there’s not enough annual leave for us both to be off at the same time. The system isn’t working but I’m not sure what the answer is. The curriculum certainly needs a big overhaul anyway. It shouldn’t be so crammed that teachers are struggling to fit it all in. There should be room for fun at all ages throughout school.

DS(17) hates the long summer holiday, and has since he was too old for holiday club. He likes the order and structure of school.

Having said that, a week is often too short. I’d like 4 weeks in the summer instead of 6, and 2 weeks in October and May, instead of 1. Christmas to Easter is often a pretty short term, so stick with 1 week in Feb.

Please look up school holidays in Ireland…8 weeks primary and 3 month’s secondary and we have all the same holidays uk have , week off now now for Halloween..

This whole moaning about the school holiday length is a very recent phenomenon, it wasn’t even happening 5 years ago when we were more in the throes of it all from memory. 90s & 00s parenting was more hands off so there wasn’t an expectation to make every day a “memory”. It’s a juggle, but we all know it’s coming when we have kids, it’s a very short amount of time in the 18 years, and I think kids need it. I personally enjoy the change in routine.

Lower your expectations and get off social media.

On the contrary. The teachers I worked with (and I) would happily have had the holidays spread over the year. Two weeks in October, three weeks in December and four weeks in the summer, for example.

By the end of the six weeks this year, my teenage son with adhd was nocturnal and a bit fucking feral. This is the first summer I have had to work, though. Looking at term time only again. Maybe more USA type camps are what we need.

My children have 2.5 months off. It needs a lot of organisation (which I always do over the Easter break) but they do go back to school with a new outlook and ready to learn. Also they have a lot of time for sports camps etc.

Our school does this (2 weeks off after every 8 weeks, 4 weeks summer) we’ve just gone to consultation to change them to traditional hours because the school struggles with recruitment and high turnover of staff, one reason of which is repeatedly given is the school holidays.

Yeah, I can believe there exist some teachers who'd prefer it, but the profession now is obviously going to lean towards those who value the status quo. Whenever it comes up on here, most MN teachers say they'd be against a change and it would affect recruitment.

Apparently the long summer break once connected to the need for children to help with harvest.