How old were your kids when you started leaving them at home alome during the holidays whilst at work?

[GetOrfMoiLand]

DD is 13 and I have left her alone on the odd days (say 2 days out of a week's half term) for about a year now.

For the longer holidays she goes to my mum's house in Devon. I work very long hours, and also we live about 15 miles from the village where her school is (and therefore where most of her friends live ) so she would be a bit isolated. So, she has great fun at my mum's (mum lives near a beach) but she does miss spending time with her friends here, and also I miss her like crazy (and spend most of my weekends in the summer holidays traipsing down the M5). Thankfully I always take the last 2 weeks of August off to spend with her, but the first two weeks of the holidays are very long indeed.

What does everyone else do for childcare (teencare?) in the summer holidays?

Loads of dd's schoolfriends are left alone, however they have older siblings. Would feel a bit bad about leaving dd alone for 12 hours a day. However there seems to be no provision for childcare at this age, and to be honest dd would probably not want to go to a playscheme anyway. I just feel a bit torn, I would love for dd to be able to stay at home for some of the first 4 weeks of the holidays but god knows how I would be able to do it.

I've got a 13 yo DD now too and the holiday care side is now a real issue. Up to now she and ds 9 have a combination of one of us at home/on holiday, staying with grandparents (over 100 miles away) and holiday club (expensive, but brill - in theory it's for 5-11yo but in practice takes teens too).

This is the last summer I think we can do this. Parents getting older - they love having them but 3-4 days is plenty. We have generous holiday entitlement, but can't cover all holidays. At Easter for the first time DD announced she was bored with holiday club and it was too young (only 1 other teen there). I'm not happy leaving her for long days, days in a row either. Her friends' mums are either SAHM or term-time only work and though they'd happily have her over for a while, I just can't impose on them for that length of time and I can't really reciprcate. Nightmare.

Don't know what to do - just empathising really.

Can't help I'm afraid but I totally see the problem. CM used to have them when there were small but she's now retired and they are too old really. Holiday clubs won't take DS~1 as he's too old and some of the won't take DS2 as he's too young . My parents are also too old now to tackle all 3. But thankfully DH is now working in a school so has the holidays off. Otherwise I don't know.

Thanks for replies everyone. It's a swine, isn't it. I am very, very lucky that my mum only works a few hours, and is more than happy (actually she would be very annoyed if it stopped) having dd for the hols. And dd does love spending the summer in Devon - wouldn't we all! But I hate her going away for so long, I miss her a lot, plus she tends to lose touch with her school friends in Cheltenham being away for such a long stretch.

Agree holiday clubs are a bitcrap at this age. In an ideal world (huh) I would leave her in bed, she could have a lie in, and then I would finish work at 1pm so we could spend the afternoon together (or I could be the taxi service that delivers her to all her social events more like ). But that aint ever going to happen.

Can't you use annual leave and starting early to finish early for a month? i am lucky in that when mine get to that age I will be able to do that because my job is flexible enough - may be worth a try

Would your mum be willing to take your dd plus a friend for some of the time. That's what mine did/does with my kids? I appreciate that it's a big responsibility looking after other people's kids but it might be (part of) the answer.
Failing that what about a summer camp like PGL, where they can stay over, with others of the same age and do a variety of activities from pony trekking to learning to drive. Not cheap though there are special offers around at the moment.

I've been leaving ds since he was 12 but I only do 5 hour days and he doesn't wake up till about 11am. Usually he & one or two of the boys in the village get together at one or others houses to play PS3 & can put a pizza in the oven.

I only work 3 or 4 days a week so this doesn't usually happen more than twice in one week. Other times, I drop him at a school friend's house for the day then reciprocate on my day off.

I don't worry about it tbh, he enjoys a bit of independence and as we're in a small village, everyone looks out for each other.

I only do a 6 hr day and am 10 minutes walk away and leave DS and DD on their own for the odd day.

We have a very good mariners base where they can go for the day and do adventure sports which they both enjoy, but the price has gone up a lot this year and it will end up costing me more than I earn for a day.