Holidays and single parenting

[Tinselandall]

Just wondering for the single parents how you manage school holidays all year round. My ex has the children for 9/10 days extra a year in school holiday time plus every other weekend. He likes the other half of his holiday child free. Obviously they have around 13 weeks off a year that I generally manage.

Hi my ex didn’t take any time off in the school hols. He applied to take them away for one week in the term time which drove me crazy!

As I was low income I used after school clubs and holiday clubs and tax credits helped with the fees. I worked 9-4pm in an office until they got older at secondary school I started leaving them alone at home while I was at work. I had a nice boss and even a few times had to bring them into work and they did drawing all day in a spare office. My mum actually used to take off 2 weeks in summer to help me out. My sister had 2 maternity leaves so she helped me out a couple of years. I also would share childcare with friends sometimes and have their kids in exchange for them having mine different days. It was basically a mish mash of everything trying to survive around everyone else’s support

DS dad isn't in the picture at all, and it's a juggle. The mental gymnastics alone of planning out annual leave/clubs/friend dates should be a full time job!

I'm lucky that DS is incredibly sociable/confident in new situations so we do a lot of holiday clubs because he loves them. I'm sure I'd feel mum guilt if he didn't 😬

I also try and play off playdates with friends - so I'll take annual leave for one day and take DS and 2 of his friends out for the day, then the next day another mum will do the same, and then again with the mum of the 3rd kid so we all get a few days work in. It took strategic friend-making though 😂

We also go away a lot during the holidays, and I'll 'WFH' from a holiday park whilst watching DS have a ball - I'm lucky my job is flexible enough for this (lots of late nights make up for that flexibility though!)

Holiday clubs! Its an expensive and stressful experience 😓
I am thinking of getting a job in a school purely because I just can't cope with juggling it all..

Yep. Totally get you, I'm the same. I parent a 9 year old on my own and have done from the start.

This year I've found it very hard, my parents are older now and one who dementia. Normally we do stuff with them but this year they have been ill so it's largely just been me and my daughter out together. I'm normally fine, but it's hit me harder this year seeing all the happy families out. They tend to do stuff with other families as well, single parents don't normally get included in the same way.

Tomorrow luckily we are we my sister and her family, however the rest of the holidays we will be alone.

I think you just have to get on with it as best as you can, it gets easier as they get older, I have a real laugh with my daughter as we go out do things like visit the theatre. So we are becoming more like friends now x

Oops! Please ignore posted on the wrong thread!