What do you do about school holidays?

[Noughtskissexxo]

Mum of 2. Eldest just turned 4 youngest is 2

So eldest is going to school next September

Current arrangement is i am part time so im off with the kids 2 days, theyre in nursery for 3 then we have our weekends

Just wondering how everyone manages school holidays? Id have 2 days in the week sorted itd just be the other 3. And would save annual leave for it but it won't cover every school holiday day

Holiday clubs, grandparents, childminders or unpaid leave in a pinch.

At Reception age, Mixture of

• take annual leave
• book DC into camps / clubs
• grandparents

Now DC older (7.5) we are starting to do some reciprocal drop and go play dates with friends, and the amount and types of activities available increases, for example my Year 3 DD now does a pony club camp that wouldn't have been an option at age 4

One of the reasons that we picked DS’ school is that they have a holiday club run by the same people that run the after school club. DS doesn’t love it but there’s usually a couple of people he knows from school there and we mix it up with annual leave and grandparents.

Choose a school with suitable wraparound care, change your working hours, hire a nanny or childminder, agree a reciprocal agreement with someone else.

It’s a stressful and difficult juggle.

Cry mostly 🤣

We use AL between myself and my wee ones dad & Childminders!

Holidays clubs, juggling impossible amounts of priorities, maybe some family assistance if you're lucky, sheer will, perhaps some luck also.

Is their father involved?

We basically use our annual leave at opposite times. Child is 7, autistic with high support needs so can't access holiday clubs and we have no family support. My employer has an additional holiday purchase scheme, I have a few days extra through long service and husband and I work additional hours to accrue TOIL.

Is it just you or is their dad in the picture as that will make a big difference.

me and DH both worked full time from DD being 9months old, nursery years were a lot easier than school because provision was year round.

when DD went to school we figured out we would have 13 weeks of school holidays to cover.

i get 7 weeks annual leave, DH gets 5 weeks, we had a week together over summer, then a week around Xmas which left us with combined 8 weeks of leave we could take separately to cover school holidays so we needed to use at least 3 weeks of holiday clubs. We would actually use 4 or 5 weeks of holiday club so that we had some tolerance for nativities, random inset days, child sickness, snow days etc. we would do a week over Easter and then 3 or 4 weeks in the summer holidays.

we are lucky enough to have a really really good (if expensive) outdoor pursuits centre that runs holiday clubs and it’s fantastic so she always enjoyed going.

Things to be aware of - many holiday clubs don’t take reception age, just year 1 up. Some are not Ofsted registered so you can’t use the tax free/childcare voucher scheme. Many operate 9-3 so don’t cover a full working day.

Holiday clubs and being on holiday.

Depending where you are, some day nurseries will run a holiday club for under 8s. There are 2 round us that do this. Places are like hens teeth. Siblings of children already in the day nursery are offered spaces first. Then children who attended the day nursery and still on the nursery mailing list get next dibs. Then any unfilled spaces (very rare they are unfilled and if there are any it's usually 1 space or a space on odd days) are advertised on local FB pages. They are snapped up very quickly. My friend made sure to get her little boys name down for this nursery within months of birth as she needed the full time child care and knew someone who told her they also do holiday clubs.

Other solutions include
Finding a term time only job. Or speaking very nicely to your employer about going term time only.

Buying extra leave or building up TOIL and balancing leave with a partner to cover the weeks.

Working for yourself or family business and been able to choose hours and weeks worked (just because you work for yourself doesn't mean you can have weeks off work though).

Grandparents, family members and friends swaps. Friend swaps are easier in the older years.

Been super organised (which may include setting alarms and reminders for the 1st September/ 2nd January) and booking one of the only 3 holiday clubs (within an hour drive) which runs 8am -5pm. Otherwise again been super organised with multiple spreadsheets to cobble together care for the holidays around the 10am -2pm, 9am-12pm, 9.30am - 3pm holiday clubs that run.

Getting your child into clubs/ activities which run holiday clubs as round us priority places are given to those who attend said club. So dance club goes out to those at the dance school first, then advertised to the masses. Same with football, rugby, gymnastics, acting.

Cobbling together multiple bookings at multiple clubs as everywhere only offers 2 or 3 days a week or 1 week of the holiday. So week 1 of summer is gymnastics club, week 2 Tuesday and Thursday is art club but only 9-12 so someone (usually grandma) needs to collect. Then no other clubs are running that week, but Wednesday they have a rocking horse poo space at day nursery 8-5. Repeat for all holidays.

Or sacking work off altogether.

I forgot, praying to all God's of all denominations that whatever childcare you have cobbled together does not fall through at the last minute. In truly desperate times you also make offerings and empty promises of conversation if the childcare does not fall through.

Annual leave, holiday clubs, childminder who is running all year round (apart of one short period she goes on holiday each year)

Annual leave, holiday clubs and grandparents. I know some do childcare swaps. You look after a friends child when they work and they look after yours when you work. It's stressful and a juggle.

Holiday clubs mainly, then grandparents for an odd day, plus trading with other parents so I have their kids for a day, and then vice versa

Holiday clubs. But I find some around here can be too old for younger ones. So at the moment eldest goes to a multi sports club and 4YO goes to the hiday club at her nursery (twice the price of eldest's club).

I work for myself and don't take on work during school holidays. I quite like being able to spend that time with them now, but eldest does short days at clubs and I'll pick up more work once younger one goes to clubs.

You can take up to 4 weeks a year in unpaid parental leave. I think you have 12 weeks per child which you can use until they turn 16. They have to be taken a week at a time and your employer cannot refuse, only ask you to take it at a different time.

Mix of annual leave and holiday clubs

Holiday club, annual leave and I take 1-2 weeks parental leave off. We normally have 2 family holidays a year and then DH and I take leave at opposite times so we're off with the DC. No grandparent help.

We're lucky to have a number of holiday clubs to choose from but it expensive now with two at school!

I went term time only, working Mon to Fri. But, I am knackered! Once my youngest gets to secondary school I'll revert back to all year round.

Look at the main holiday clubs in your area and get a sense of when they run. I have to take a/l after the August bank holiday as there’s no clubs running. Book grandparents in for the odd inset day months in advance.

cry af least once a year

otherwise I literally always am either at work or have a child with me and that means I can’t really do anything much!

yep. That’s what it’s like for other working parents too when we take annual leave to cover the school holidays.

Holiday clubs. Annual leave taken separately aside from 2 weeks we go on holiday.
Grandparents on odd occasion

Holiday clubs and annual leave when young. Now they are older I just leave them on their own. Still take annual leave for days out. My daughter spent morning revising (or so she tells me) today and then went on a bike ride with her friend this afternoon, my son spent it gaming with his friend. He's walked to his friends house, and his friend's mum kindly provided lunch (I will cook for her son too when he's over).

DH and I take 2 weeks off in the summer but overlap only 1 week so that sorts 3 weeks. Grandparents do a week. The rest of the year we take our annual leave separately, use holiday clubs or parent swaps. I also purchase an extra week of holiday but even then it’s not enough. (Think it’s effectively the same cost as parental leave but I get to choose how to take it eg in single days rather than a solid week)

We don’t take any other time off in the year together except a few days at Christmas. So family holidays are in our shared week in the summer or long weekends over bank holidays.

Our eldest is now 12 so we are starting to see a change - we can wfh for a day or two and she potters about or has a mate over. This helps. When our youngest reaches a similar age hopefully we can take less holiday time for childcare and use it together

We have a nanny.