How do you fit work around 11+ age children during school holidays?

[LifeIsGr8]

Genuine question. If you have year 6 & older children how do you work your job around the 6 week holiday? Clubs aren't as widely available for that age group. More specifically the days you go in the office.

Some clubs do cater for these ages, eg performing arts / tennis, although they’re not usually 8-6 hours as children that age don’t need full wrap around care and can get themselves to / from clubs, and spend some time at home alone / with friends.

Some lucky people have grandparents to help out / can work from home to keep an eye on the teens / tweens.

DH and I are fortunate to be able to work from home a few days a week each, enough to ensure one of us is home on each day. It's a godsend, I'm not sure what we'd do otherwise tbh, we don't have access to any family support.

Some normal holiday camps around us do cater for up to about 13, we have learnt which ones actually have those ages attend and which ones just say they can but have only up to about y4! A couple have "young leader" type programme. Then as a pp said there are also more focused camps (eg tech/coding, sports and more adventurous activities) that are aimed at 10-16ish. Agree not all are a full 9-5 or 9-3 type day though, but some are.

Each parent takes a week leave not at the same time, week or two family holiday, week with grandparents, week or two course.
Took planning but we never had to take unpaid or emergency leave. We were very very lucky that for several years our local water sports facility offered turn up on the day all week sessions for £2/ day/ child.
At 11 plus they can stay at home unsupervised/ told not to disturb wfh parents too.

We've done a smidge of forward planning and kids have new book series to indulge in, and there's a lego spike prime kit waiting to be unveiled for the holidays. We'll mostly be able to juggle on-site working, and if not, the kids can look after themselves for a bit.

Depending on where you live and what your child's social situation is like, it's really not long before they can walk to their friend's houses, or friends come here, or go to the park etc. By secondary school they're much more independent and don't really need childcare, just a responsible adult's oversight to know where they are and what they're up to.

They do their thing, I do mine.

I go out to work, they tend to lie in, then go out with friends.

I work from home, and they just do their thing. Breakfast and lunch they fend for themselves, dinner each of them cooks once per week, and I cook the rest (or go and get a takeaway if I'm struggling that day)

My eldest is being paid to look after the youngest. There may be some healthy neglect.

I've been worrying about this for next year. I've booked 2 weeks off already but the other 4 I'm hoping school holiday club might take him as he'll only just have left and will still be 10. If not there's a tech one I've found that takes older kids and isn't sports based but it's £40 a day so I couldn't afford 4 full weeks but he could do a few sessions. It's really hard. I'm not comfortable leaving him by himself for 8.5 hours a day but I think that might end up being the reality.

WFH as much as possible. Chasing them out of the door for a walk/basketball as much as possible.

We found a club at the local leisure centre that accepted years 7 and 8, which was 9-3, we had to sign him in but he could sign himself out. So a late start but not early finish. He didn’t like it as most were younger but better than 6h of PlayStation

Summer of year 6, regular holiday camps should still accept

Mine both did Scouts at that age - so that was a full week camp at a very reasonable price which was one week sorted. I know a friend whose DC went to PGL camp for a week.

Then we'd have our family holiday for another couple of weeks, and work from home between us for the other weeks with occasional day courses/ camps if there was something they were interested in - this was less about childcare and more about them not spending the entire summer on screens!

We usually take 2 weeks off and 1-2 random days off each. Then a combination of one of us WFH and grandparents. Sometimes my eldest has gone to a friend's while their parent is WFH then the friend comes to us another day when I'm WFH - they entertain themselves so not much hassle.
My eldest is 13 now and I think this summer is the first time I think she'd be ok alone if we both needed to be in the office.

We work from home. I didn’t always and had to change to a lower paid job so I could work from home.

We take annual leave for two weeks to go on hols, the kids attend two different sports camps for another two weeks and for the rest of the time, they have to do their own thing at home - watching tv, gaming etc (not ideal at all).

I’d never leave an 11/12/13/14 year old home alone and their friends are too scattered around/gone abroad for the summer. I wouldn’t be happy for them to go to the park alone at that age either.

You wouldn't let a 13/14 year old go to the park alone?

By that age they are perfectly capable of being left alone for a few hours.

You wouldn't let a teenager go the the park or stay on their own at home?
At what age would you let them do that?

You wouldn't let a teenager go the the park or stay on their own at home?
At what age would you let them do that?

What age? For a full day at home alone? 15+ IF they were completely comfortable with it themselves.

I know some kids aren't ready at 11 to stay home alone, and that's ok, but I would say that's something that needs to be worked on if so. But by 14, I don't think you're doing a child any favours to not allow them to do things/they aren't capable of doing things that all their peers are doing because that must be so damaging to their confidence. Many 14 year olds are being paid to babysit younger children.

1 week grandparents
1 week scout camp
1 week performing arts course
2 weeks family holiday
1 week home alone

Roughly

But by 14, I don't think you're doing a child any favours to not allow them to do things/they aren't capable of doing things that all their peers are doing because that must be so damaging to their confidence.

Their peers are not doing it. 😀

They may be capable or they may not. I remember being at home myself at that age and I was bored and lonely. It was awful. My kids wouldn’t entertain themselves for hours and hours on their own and I wouldn’t expect them to.

They’d sit on computers all day too. What a waste of their school holidays.

I can’t even begin to imagine the arguing either.

Then you and I live in very different worlds @Username1010. I don't know any 14yr olds that aren't left home alone. I guess if you know your kids will argue, or game rather than go out with friends to swim or on bike rides etc then it's a different matter.

.They can’t bike ride around here, we live in a busy area with busy toads. People commute by bike to the city but there are numerous accidents.

There is a thread on MN about 15 year olds having sex. Maybe all the time alone is resulting in them growing up sooner. We, as parents, have to decide whether we are happy for our children to have all this time alone. I’m not.

They’ll be on their iPads in their bedrooms eating pot noodles

'We, as parents, have to decide whether we are happy for our children to have all this time alone. I’m not.'

That's cool. I am. They're not alone as such though, they're with their friends. And I trust them. I guess I base my parenting on my own experiences, as you have done. My own was that the kids who I was at Uni with who never had independence, were the wild ones going bonkers shagging and drinking. I want to make sure my kids take the gradual steps to uni.