Childcare in school holidays

[ChildcarePanic]

I'm in a massive panic. My son is due to start school in September. I'm a lone parent and work full time. I'm trying to find play schemes for the summer holidays but can't seem to find anything that will cover up to 4 weeks, and holiday clubs in all the half terms. I'm worrying that my son is going to struggle having no down time. I worried I won't be able to find enough childcare to not affect my work. I'm worrying he's going to suffer because I'm going to have to use a lot of after school/breakfast clubs. How do other lone parents do it? How do you cope with working full time and also balancing childcare when your child is in school?

Bump

Have to had this conversation with your work? Could you be in a position to do some school holidays working from home? Or even term time you work silly hours in the evening so you get extra days off in school hols?

I'm sorry for your predicament OP. I remember my mum (also single mum) putting us mainly into holiday clubs, but taking off the first and last week of the summer hols.
My mums Mum was very helpful though with childcare

Do you have any family support? I take a couple of weeks in the summer holidays to look after my sister's children, our mum does the same. Also at Easter, half terms etc.

It’s a fucking nightmare not going to lie.

You need to plan ahead for the next year - so start looking at summer holiday bits now.

Best thing I ever did was find a childminder who would do the school run/pick up and covered most half terms. Some have an upper age limit, but it’s worth asking around to see if you can find anyone.

Also in September make a big effort to speak to other mums, lots will be in a similar situation and childcare swaps really help out. That way you can take half a week off for half term and have friend’s children as well.

Firstly, he'll be fine. After school club and holiday clubs give them a lot of down time and mostly they are playing with their friends. Unless you are very rural, you will find childcare but it can sometimes be a bit mix and match (I used to have a spreadsheet for the whole year with the school holidays and then decide when I would take leave and what childcare was available).
Ask on your local FB groups as to what is available - I found they often aren't well advertised and not very far in advance so you need to know from others what there is. Locally the private schools all had great holiday care available to anyone if you knew it was there, but it was never advertised and the same for the tennis club, rugby club (2 weeks available at each).
Also things like the leisure centre nearest to me only had 9-4 clubs (but they really were great and the kids went swimming and bellboating), but the next nearest you could get 8-6 so you had to ask around a bit.

What does he do now? If he's in childcare now 8-6 or whatever to enable you to work as you do then surely things won't change much? The nursery might even do wrap around and will certainly do holiday clubs which will work for the first few years!

I work from home already but with the job I do it wouldn't be possible with a 4/5 year old at home. Lots of meetings and speaking to vulnerable clients.

I do for school pick ups twice a week which is super helpful, but that's it. No siblings in the county and my parents both work full time.

local sports clubs often do week long camps all through the summer.

also the school may have some provision for all holidays, most local ones for us do.

try Googling sports or activity camps, rather than your original search terms.

good luck.

sounds like you’re doing a cracking job xx

I'm trying to plan at the moment, but the only things I can find near me are 280/300 a week so trying to find something a bit more affordable. Definitely can't find 1.2k a month. I'll definitely be trying to make connections at school

What sort of area do you live in?

It helps to live somewhere quite urban with lots of holiday club provision!

Can you wfh a bit so that he only needs to go to holiday club for core hours rather than really long days? (I wouldn’t recommend trying to wfh all day with a 5 yo in the house!)

Take all of your holiday in the school hols, obviously. You can be creative with it and take some days off in each week of the hols rather than whole week blocks if you want to break up the holiday clubs a bit, or if you prefer blocks of time with him with longer holiday club stretches then do that.

Any family at all who might help a bit, even for money?

He does 8-6 but it has been a lot for him. Can't wait until he's a bit older and I can work from home with him there.

We use holiday clubs. I always talk with other mums and agree which weeks we’ll do at which camp, so that DC are with their friends.
it’s expensive though - the cheap ones are £40 a day now, the expensive ones £56. Per CHILD.

An amazing Childminder was the best thing I did, breakfast when needed, after school sometime with dinner if I was travelling and adhoc in school holidays. I found her by watching and asking around the foundation playground. It’s really hard though, you can request unpaid special leave but it has to be taken in one week chunks and your lose your pay. I found many childcare summer clubs were all set up abit late, I needed more certainty in what was available or they were short days. There are a couple of private schools locally that did excellent clubs open to all but then were more £s. We did a mix n match approach but I did have a spreadsheet drawn up of who was when where and cost…

There are holiday clubs but they will be for children over 5. Have you search for holiday camps in your area?

Also where we are, there are holiday clubs that are for younger children, which will suit a reception child more. It's linked to a nursery run after school club. Have a look around but don't withdraw your place for this summer because your child isn't 5 yet.

Is it possible to buy more leave at work or do part year / term time working, even partially or compressed hours and have a day off each week? Obviously you lose money but you'll be paying out anyway so is it better to lose the money but you have time with your child ?

If you work from home can you diary calls for a set time and use council / parish play scheme ? They generally run 9-3 but it's something and maybe movies on the afternoon

It's a real juggle - as an auntie I have already sent over my roster for August with my availability as sister is a solo parent and I try to help where I can - I can see how much it weighs on ger juggling x

It’s easier once they are aged 8 as the ratios changed but between 4-7yrs it was really hard. Our local nursery actually did a 10-3pm session for the younger ones using their previously used term time hall. If your work has some flex maybe you can work hours around a shorter day??

It's a constant juggle. I have no family support so generally try and use a combination of:

• paid holiday clubs
• my annual leave (never enough to cover all school holidays but never take any outside school holidays)
• working longer hours when I can to build up time off in lieu, that's been a god send for the upcoming 2 week half term
• couple of favours begged from other mum friends
• working from home. Don't do this often as it's not ideal and I try to do it on days when I haven't got calls/meetings and am just doing computer based stuff (obviously not every job will lend itself to this)

So far, that's got me through. If all else failed I'd have to take unpaid leave to cover any shortfall

I'm also a single parent OP, and I use a childminder for school holidays. My CM takes on holiday only children so maybe you could find one close to you?
My DS goes on lots of outings with her and they do daily activities. It's certainly a lot cheaper than the clubs you see advertised. You also may get help from UC with fees if your income is low.

One thing that I've found helpful on the cost front is that you can pay into tax free childcare throughout the year, so the financial hit come summer doesn't feel as bad.

I often felt quite isolated from all these plans other parents were making because I was simply not at school to get to know the parents.
I'd hear about so and so lift sharing or having kids over to play, or see pics of class mates going to the same play scheme and feel so low about it.

This was more an issue with my older son when there was less social media and phone communication (and I was working more).

It's HARD OP, really hard. Even now with my 14 yo I'm breathing a huge sigh of relief that I've saved up most of my AL so I can take 3 weeks off in the summer. Working full time as a lone parent with a child at home and little support is a big challenge.

It’s hard - but not forever. If you can wfh then by 8-9, they can be safe at home and not interfering with your work. It’s not ideal granted. It helps if your child is sporty - football camps near me are cheap (er). Helps also to have family (I don’t).

did anyone mention parental leave? If you can afford to drop a couple of weeks salary that could work?

i have avoided falling in to groups arrangements with other parents for a few reasons. Kids fall out for one. My child’s friends parents also play fast and loose with car seats (ie 4 kids in the car including the front, no car seats). Happy to accept it doesn’t bother everyone but it bothers me. Clubs can have staggered starts and finishes too. Sometimes it may suit you to drop or leave early or late. I don’t want to be tied in to a later time because a friends parents won’t be home before then or an earlier time as the kid needs to go on to another activity etc. too complicated.

He's 5 in October so will be absolutely fine to go to clubs, it's just the cost. I'm going to scour the Internet later for cheaper one!