School holidays with 2 working parents??????????

[Tom]

How the hell do you manage school holidays????

My boy, Cole, is eligible for State Nursery this September - between 1 and 3.30 pm. After payin gover £200 a week for nursery, this is a blessed relief, and it's not hard to figure out how things can work in term time...

My wife and I both work from home, with complete flexibility... so she can look after our boy in the morning until he goes to nursery at 1pm, and I'll work early morning until 3.30, then pick him up and take over until bedtime... easy. BUT.

What the hell do you do in the school holidays? I get 5 weeks holiday a year, and she is self employed, so if she stops working, she stops earning. It's about 13/14 weeks in the year when there's no childcare provision whatsoever... or at least none that I know about.

So it seems like we'll have to keep him in day nursery until he goes to school proper in a year's time, which will cost us loads, but he'll get decent educational input and there's no problem with holidays... OR... another solution that I've not heard of yet.

And anways, when he starts school, the same problems remain - what the hell do you do in the school holidays?????

Tom, if you're in Cardiff the ACORN nursery chain do holiday and half-term clubs. Children do not have to go to Acorns or have siblings in Acorns to use them.

Thanks for the tip - where is Acorns nursery in cardiff?

Tom, I'm amazed, you're in Cardiff and you haven't heard of Acorns???

It's a local chain, there are branches at the BBc in LLandaff, one off Park Place (next to Pen & Wig), Whitchurch and others. They're in the phonebook under Day nurseries.

I work 2 days a week (bliss) because I like it (horror!) and the children go to holiday club in the summer. Coming up to the end of term, the most used threat is 'if you don't behave you won't be able to go to holdiay club', works a dream. Also, one of my dds friend asked her mum if she could please start working as she wanted to go to after school like my dd! I feel very lucky that I can afford to pick the most appropriate form of childcare for my children - grandparents aren't an option. If we wanted to use them, we'd have to move to Surrey, so I would then have to work full time to afford somewhere to live.
Also, I continue to work in order to provide a bit of a cushion should anything happen to dhs job, I would be able to up my hours to full time which I belive reduces some of the stress he must feel as the major breadwinner in the family.
BTW I had a SAHM, I used to wish I could go to a children home. Not all SAHMs are idylic parents, just as not all working mums prioritise work over children.
Back to holiday care - I also panicked before dd started school, but have found that most of it has slotted into place. My tips are

1. try to fit in a few long days, rather than more short ones. You will probably end up paying for a full days childcare anyway, and my children enjoy the fact that when they are not at HC we can have the whole day to do what we like - day trips, picnic or just slobbing in PJs all day (little darlings actually did this at Easter - got up & declared a pyjama day & didn't get changed all day. They got a bit mucky in the sandpit though )
2. be a bit wary about arranging shared childcare for the whole of the summer. Probably different because I've got 2 kids, but looking after mine plus 2 others does restrict what you can do (no swimmimg for eg) Although as said earlier, I am lucky in that I don't have the financial restrictions.
3. Try not to use ALL your holidays doing childcare singly (obviously doesn't apply to single parents) I find mine would rather go to HC for 2 days, if it meant we could have an extra 2 days together as a family, and I also think its good for use as a family. They obviously enjoy being with those monkeys!
4. Look for the local copies of Kids Direct and Scool Link (not sure if you get them in your area Tom) as most childcarers/HC will advertise there.
5. Ask private schools if they run HC. Many of them do, and most will allow 'outsiders' there. Would obviously be better if you can arrange for someone else to go at the same time though. Again, this usually falls into place when they start school (there's a lot of people in the same boat)
6. Finally (at last) my children didn't go to playgroup for the same reasons you mentioned Tom, difficulties with childcare over holidays etc, and I felt the continuity was better for them at nursery (love those monkeys again). It made no difference when they got to school, as many of the children had also been to a variety of playgroups/nurseries etc so they were all 'new' to a certain extent. Anyway, HTH

Oops - sorry it was so long , and I can spell, honest

I haven't read all of this so I am sorry if I repeat anything. I am a SAHM with two DS's, although I felt it was the right thing to do and I have no regrets I also didn't have much choice, cost of childcare, didn't want to work full-time etc. I just wanted to say after reading bits of this that as a SAHM I have seen members of the blue rinse brigade (no offence to those who have grandparents looking after their children who up to the job, I'm talking here about old dears who should have their feet up in front of the fire with a nice cuppa) looking after small children and it scares the life out of me. If I had to work/was able to work I would be much happier leaving my children in the care of a nursery/childminder than an elderly relative.

BTW I regularly leave my two in a leisure centre creche, even although I have no real need to, just want some 'me' time and an opportunity to shift some flab. Bad Mummy?

Also don't think it was on to pick on PPH. As I have said already I am a SAHM and I have left the house with odd shoes on and didn't even have pregnancy as an excuse! I won't bore you with the endless list of other daft things I have done.

Loved Scummymummy's verse!

Sorry Tom I have no advice but good on you for working things out so that you can spend time with your DS. My own DH has recently changed his work life so he works at home and can spend more time with the children and is thoroughly enjoying it. All the best!

Just going through this thread and came across Serphrina. I'm a nurse (well was until the 2 ds arrived) only left last year and was wondering what NHS trust she works for. Newly qualified nurses on 26k a year doing standard shifts - not in our Trust and I worked in London.

Have thought about going back to work when the boys are older but had wondered what to do in the school holidays and have got some really good advice from this thread. I guess splitting the school year into 6 terms is going to be a headache for those juggling now?

Newly qualified D grade nurses start on £16,018

Some brilliant ideas on this thread. Really like the idea of the NNEB nannies for when ds goes to school.

Also, IME kids and esp babies are really body fascists, who adore big eyed teenagers on sight. A neighbour's student daughter took care of my ds when my nanny went on holiday (I work at home so still can supervise a bit) and he just worshipped her!

Batters, thanks for your wise words.
Sincere apologies to anyone I have offended. I have been using this as a debating forum rather than a purely supportive one. I have been interested to hear the points of view of others and have modified my own views as a result.
Finally, particular apologies to Tom for hijacking your thread somewhat.

Seraphina, that took a lot of doing! I was going to say well done but it sounded a bit condescending. That was a very graceful post and acknowledgement of your feelings. Apology well and truly accepted!

Just some facts on nurses pay for anyone interested.
A newly qualified nurse earns £16,005 just as a starting point. Added to this is a "cost of living allowance" of £400, plus, if you are in London, the London weighting of £3,228. If you work in care of the elderly or psychiatry there is an additional allowance (£562 for psychiatry). Standard shift patterns increase your pay by 14% for a proportion of night and weekend work (£2,240). Each year an extra increment of about £300 is added to your salary.
This equates to circa £22k. Overtime is normally available at enhanced rates.
Nurses can also retire and draw a pension at age 55.

Tom, to go back to your original point, until fairly recently we had to rearrange our work to cover the holidays. DH works nights & I worked part-time, so he just had to make sure that worked around the times I would be there. It does mean that you use up all your holiday & don't see each other at all, but that is the reality of life with children.

I stupidly married a man who was not able to support me in the manner to which I'd like to become accustomed. If I don't work, we don't eat, simple as that. I'd love to be a SAHM... I'll have to find a new DH

Just to add my twopenn'orth. Dds go to an after-school club 3 days a week, which also runs a holiday club. It's not cheap (£28 per day for the 2 of them), but they do provide all their meals, they enjoy it there and do varied activities, art, music, TV, games, reading etc. TBH one of the reasons they're going to carry on going there next term, just for one day a week, is so that the "link" is still there. I don't like to put them in there for more than 2 days a week, though, especially in the summer months, as there's no outdoor area. For the other 2 days in the working week (I work 4), dh arranges his rota so that he's off while I work. We also have a childminder who's available for extra "emergency" cover. With no family nearby, though, it does take a lot of forward planinng. I'm luck enough to work flexible hours and have 30 days holiday (at the expense of my wages, obviously), but even so, have been planning the summer holidays since the beginning of the year - I will take 3 weeks off, one of which dh will have as well, dds will go to M & FIL for one week, and the other 2 they will go to the holiday club and me & dh will work around each other. Takes up a lot of my time planning it all, though.
Oh, and Tom, I live in Newport, and there's at least 3 holiday/after-school clubs that I know of here, so there must be many more than that in Cardiff - we may be only 12 miles away, but sometimes it feels like 12 years, too!

Maybe some bright spark can organise a website where you can search for holdiay clubs for children... that'd be dead helpful - and before you ask, no - I just don't have the time!

Not surprised with all that tooing and froing between Cardiff & Southampton....

Tom, I really sympathise having no folks nearby -as to finding clubs have you had a look at your local council website - they might have links. One local school does a brilliant holiday club for around £65 a week, and you don;t have to go to that school. I'm lucky in that my childminder (where they went as babies) is quite happy to have them school holidays. A friend of mine (with 3 kids but they were age 6 and 8) ) had one of the sixth formers who had just left ating as an au-pair.

Hi, don't know if any of you saw this article in the Jobs & Money section of the Guardian but I thought it might be useful.