UK Parents working full time - what do you do with the summer holidays?
Posted by Downtown-Orchid-2257@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 123 comments
Context: Live in Scotland, parent to 5 and 9 year olds. Getting a preview of this situation with the current Easter holidays.
Prefacing this by saying I have been very lucky to have either worked part time or had savings to rely upon for the past 9 years of parent hood.
I'm now working full time for the first time since both kids were not at nursery. Our savings are gone, partly due to childcare costs. The best childcare option for our family is £80 per day. We've managed the Easter holidays with my partner taking a tonne of time off. They're self employed so they don't get paid. I took a couple of days off to have some time together as a family but am trying to keep as much paid leave as possible.
Grandparents are helpful but their health isn't great. I know they find it tiring and can't rely on them too much this year.
So yeah, full time working parents: how the hell do you manage the long summer holidays?
kiolly66@reddit
I work NHS and the allowance annualised hours. Basically I work more in the term time and then get more time off in the holidays. I'm pretty much full time in terms time and then do 2 days per week in the holidays. I think it averages out about 31 hours a week over the year or something. Not ideal if you want the money but it makes the holidays so much easier!
Other than that we rely on family. I can't afford holiday clubs, they are too expensive. The 13yo we can leave at home but obviously can't leave the 4 yo at home! My sister sometimes helps, sometimes our parents, it's a mixed bag, we also try plan annual leave. It's a nightmare but we can't do much about it!
CrazyCake69@reddit
You will get a mix of answers but I wouldn't be surprised if it willbe one of the following.
Work from home - couple days a week then grandparents the other days.
Grandparents all the time
Parent 1 takes 2 weeks, parent 2 takes 2 weeks grandparents or a summer camp/club take the rest
Nomoreorangecarrots@reddit
This heavily relies on grandparents. Sadly we have none so holiday clubs it is.
Sensitive_Tomato_581@reddit
Looking after chldren is a fulltime job, working from home while looking after children is doing 2 jobs at once - not many employers would see this as acceptable.
Downtown-Orchid-2257@reddit (OP)
Agree, neither of us are keen on working around the kids. My work will turn a blind eye but I know my productivity goes down when they're in the house during working hours.
Clemtastic1@reddit
I keep back two weeks holiday and take it in summer, her father takes her for two weeks and the remaining time she has to go to a summer club. Where I am, for one child its runs to £65 a day and the hours aren't as long as the wrap around care at school so I have to go in late and leave early.
If you qualify for tax free childcare and the club is accredited you can get the 20% discount.
Cydr86@reddit
Holiday club but the hours aren't as good as wraparound care so we'll have some time I'll take off (we can't afford a proper holiday anyway) and hub will take some time off but probably not much time off together. I will ask my bro for the odd day here or there if he can and we'll cobble something together.
nina-care@reddit
Have you looked into au pairs? It can be the most flexible and cost-effective childcare option. It totally depends if your family would be open to a situation like this, but most au pairs look for a job especially for the summer holidays. They can help out up to around 30 hours per week. The whole experience is more of a cultural exchange, mutually beneficial au pairs and fams, so if you are into this, you should for sure check it out!
Marilliana@reddit
One option that hasn't been mentioned yet, in case it helps... my husband and I work AT each of our parents' houses for a week each in the summer holidays, and it's usually how we manage half terms.
This is mostly because we live a couple of hours drive away, but it's also because they're getting older and some back up from us is helpful through the day rather than them managing the kids solo. When I take my lunch I can make theirs and give mum a break, and my folks can supervise the kids in their own space while I work.
It obviously relies on you being able to work from home for chunks of time, I'm lucky that my company allows us to work our allocated office time across the quarter, so I just have to make sure I do enough out of school time to be able to WFH all the holidays.
imfinewithastraw@reddit
Do the kids have friends to go to a holiday club with? £40 a day is high so surely if you can liaise with friends they’d go separately? They’re not in class together at school so holidays don’t need to be either. Other option is to see if you can share with friends. So you have their kid too one day and then they have yours another so you both can use up less holiday.
Klutzy_Award1786@reddit
Sadly for us its a tag team of using annual leave. Me Sat, Sun, Mon while he works, Tue his parents, Wed, Thur, Fri him. It's not easy but we don't have money to drop on holiday club
AgreeableEm@reddit
Why is the system still set up for a by-gone era when more women were able to stay at home and had more close-knit extended families and ‘village’ support.
It just seems so intrinsically hostile to modern families nowadays.
Not sure what the exact answer would be, but wish there was some discussion at a government level on it.
Gazcobain@reddit
I'm a teacher, and this is exactly it.
The entire system is set up to assume the man goes out to work in a factory and the woman stays home to keep house.
I have no idea what the solution is.
neverafter55@reddit
I work in sen and I think school should be school but I think they need a whole separate set of professionals to come in holidays to teach children basic skills like dress, use a knife and folk, tell the time etc and how to play. I think parents are so busy it's impossible to fit in everything and then there are some just can't be bothered to teach these things or interacting with their children. Teaching hours could never just be expanded it would have a huge impact to staff, children and schools.
Necessary_Doubt_9762@reddit
It’s absolutely awful. I’m due back after my second maternity leave and I genuinely just don’t know what we are going to do during school holidays? I think between me and my husband we will have to use annual leave and then pay an extortionate amount in childcare for the rest. Like a big percentage of my pay will be used on childcare. It seems absolutely bonkers, they want us all to work but don’t make it easy at all.
electrofudge@reddit
My sister, single parent to 2 under 6, had to give up work after the breakdown of her relationship with their father. Until the youngest can attend nursery, she is unable to work even part time. Thankfully, i'm single, without children and able to work remote/hybrid and able to help as much as is needed until she can return to work. School holidays are a struggle. Even with my help, it's not perfect, as work can potentially can increase unexpectedly and I can't be on hand to assist when it's needed.
I'm grateful to have annual leave available to help out. It's insane to punish working families, like yourselves and not be able to make it work (and want to make it more difficult in the long run).
zeduk@reddit
This is me as well, first day back from maternity today and my director has been really inflexible so far (despite the fact they’ll soon go parental leave themselves)
Mundo7@reddit
Are these not things people think about before having kids?
Loose_Avocado4670@reddit
The system needs to change.
The work day is 9-5, but the school day is 9-3. 6 week summer, plus half terms, it's just such a juggle for working parents. I'm not a parent, but I can only imagine how stressful school holidays are trying to arrange childcare.
It's not just half terms/school holidays. It's school events in the middle of the day. " Come to fun with phonics at 1:30 on Tuesday in 3 days!" Or " Our sports day is a full school day. See your child play next week, see you there!"
Literally, everything school wise is designed for families who have one parent who stays home. Stay at home parents do exist, but it's really not that common anymore.
I remember my mum complaining about this when I was a kid. When I brung home these sort of letters, she used to say, " For God's sake, they think we don't work!"
I didn't really understand this at the time but now that I'm older I feel the frustration!
Unhappy_Mushroom_290@reddit
schools are there to teach kids, not babysit for parents
zeduk@reddit
No one said they were. It’s just become incredibly difficult to manage to logistics with having kids since it’s become the norm to have both parents working full time to be able to live.
zeduk@reddit
Then you get political parties like reform saying they will ban working from home - the one recent change which had worked in favour of parents… and companies more and more are mandating people go back to the office
8rummi3@reddit
Because non-parents/boomers screech it is unfair because they don't get anything from helping out working families.
Crab in a bucket mentality
lalalandestellla@reddit
Yeah this isn’t the reason that there aren’t discussions about how to make life more affordable for families 🙄
AhhGingerKids2@reddit
This is something that annoys me to no end. You have absolutely every right to not pro-create and I strongly recommend it for some people. But, you live in a society and you don’t get to make lives harder for the people raising your future doctors, teachers, bin men, engineers, cleaners, electricians, post men, etc. To scrub your hands of the harder parts of society and reap the benefits still in 30 odd years is absolutely selfish to me and so hypocritical.
LowarnFox@reddit
Because if schools were to open for more days, it would require massive changes to teaching and support staff contracts, they'd need to be paid more and schools would require a lot more funding.
No government is prepared to fund that increase, so school holidays will stay roughly as they are with perhaps some weeks moving around in the year so people can get cheaper holidays.
Changes are complicated as well - the long summer holiday is both challenging for families and students often go backwards educationally. But equally students are often exhausted by the end of 8 week long terms, struggle to learn and seem more prone to getting ill. I do think more evenly spaced shorter holidays would be good, but most holidays do also need to be at least a week long or they have a disproportionate impact on different subjects in secondary.
But ultimately I do think it comes down to money.
lazylimpet@reddit
There really should be, this is appalling.
ZealousidealFold1135@reddit
Basically….its a nightmare! Me and my hub do one day a week each, my parents take them one day, and the other 2 days I flex…so my hub starts earlier and finishes earlier and I finish and start later or I work a weekend day. I’m lucky coz my boss is chill but yeh it’s hard. My two are the same age. Honestly, I’d try the cheaper option and see, my two are a bloody nightmare together, I’d be more inclined to find out if any of their pals are doing to a club and buddy up that way.
rebelallianxe@reddit
Kids are now grown but we both worked full time since they were 2 and 5 (before that I was at home with them a bit). We used to sit down at the start of the leave year and plan to cover as much of the school holidays between us as we could (luckily we both had generous leave allowances), and then whatever was left usually meant we had to drop them at my mum's house (250 miles away) one weekend and pick them up after a week or two. I know we were lucky that she was young and fit enough to cope with this (and also had my sister nearby to help out).
It really can be a nightmare juggling it all!
Pinkcoral27@reddit
A mixture of family, annual leave holiday clubs for the oldest and keeping the youngest in a nursery which is open year round.
Most_Kiwi3141@reddit
Holiday clubs (£££££ yikes) Unpaid leave (freelancer) Annual leave (partner) WFH and way too much screen time Club up with other parents, "I'll take yours today if you take mine tomorrow."
ErmahgerdPerngwens@reddit
Clubbing up with other parents is such a good idea in theory. Then I get massive guilt over the lack of 1:1 time with my child n
Bubbly_Barracudas@reddit
Pretty much what we do. One parent will take 2 weeks off, I’ll take 2 weeks off. The other two weeks is either a shuffle around other parents, wfh or holiday clubs (which finish at 3:30, so you still have to shuffle bits around). We are luckily in a sense that we live on a small estate with a few kids who are in my kids classes, so one day of the week I’ll take 3-4 kids in and be a mini school club, and then my kids shuffle around the houses for the rest of the week. I am fortunate that I can WFH a lot, so that happens often and they get a a lot of screen time and snacks. I start planning the summer holidays in January, so everyone is on the same page.
WaltzFirm6336@reddit
As someone with two working parents in the 1980s and no grandparents, that last one was basically how it went.
Including sharing babysitters if someone had one who could cope with an extra couple of kids. Just lots of coordinating with the other local parents and moving us all around.
GhoolsFold@reddit
Yeah, clubbing up with parents is the best thing to do if you can, it builds the old "village" and everyone wins. Also my kids really like having friends over so honestly it's often easier than having them on their own.
KezM1@reddit
We got a childminder for the holidays. Expensive, but it's subbed by tax free childcare (and still cheaper than his nursery fees were). If I'm honest, it's a small price to pay to allow us to work and keep bills paid.
TronaldDump___@reddit
I married a teacher. Highly recommend!
Downtown-Orchid-2257@reddit (OP)
As a child of teachers, I was put off stepping a foot into the profession! Think I'll take the stress of the summer holidays over the year long stress that comes with teaching.
But I do get jealous of my friends who are teachers and have kids. The luxury!
northernbadlad@reddit
Yeah my husband went back into teaching when our son started school, it's been a brilliant move.
chronicbint@reddit
Soundproofed shed with a hefty lock, throw haribo through window.
ConsiderationIll3361@reddit
Are you in the shed hiding?
chronicbint@reddit
Kids are in the shed.......Oh wait, serious answers only. My bad.
Downtown-Orchid-2257@reddit (OP)
To be fair it's the cheapest option offered and worth considering 🤣
[Serious replies tag was more to ward off the "don't have kids then" crowd. Sorry, I'll just stuff my 5 year back in then??]
GFoxtrot@reddit
OP I see you’ve edited to say you won’t qualify for unpaid parental leave by the summer holidays but from April this became a day 1 right.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/millions-of-workers-get-new-access-to-sick-pay-and-parental-leave
Downtown-Orchid-2257@reddit (OP)
This is Very Interesting and hasn't been well publicised at work at all. Their employee handbook has been updated as the last time I looked it definitely said a year! Very sneaky, haha.
Another option to consider during the long holiday period. Thanks!
sparklescc@reddit
I work part year. Not term time because it's only the summer that I don't work. Then I take them back home to spend with my parents and my husband works for the 6 weeks. My colleagues do similar normally 4 weeks 2 AL and 2 unpaid. . I have 2 AL and 4 unpaid. As they grow I will probably go to 4 weeks but as they are small I can't work for the 2 weeks with them. Easter I do WFH with them and cry
F10XDE@reddit
My work turn a blind eye to parents working a few more days from home over the holidays. Allows us to split the burden of care a little more evenly so its much appreciated.
Far-Invite-2659@reddit
Chip away each week with a small regular payment to tax free childcare and use the savings to pay for a few days holiday club each week with one day of annual leave used each week per parent.
My kids are 9 and 6. UK. Average holiday club is £25 per child per day, East Midlands.
Has worked well for us. We don't get support from family and are unable to WFH around the kids.
AttersH@reddit
Annual leave, grandparents & holiday clubs mostly. Sometimes friends. We take off 2/6 weeks between us (10 days on holiday somewhere & split the remaining days). Then weeks 3-5 are a mix of 3 days holiday club, 2 days grandparents. Week 6 is usually the other set of grandparents & various family members (my husband has siblings & they’ve all got kids, so we juggle the lot of them between us). Odd days, our friends have I our kids & we have them in return.
Look for sports clubs, we’ve got 2x local ones that run all summer & are £15-20 a day (8.30-4.30). I mean, it’s not cheap but it’s not too hideous. We have a savings pot for holiday childcare we pay into year round, so it’s not a huge hit!
TheDuraMaters@reddit
You're entitled to 18 weeks parental leave per child, up until their 18th birthday. It's unpaid but combining it with annual leave is how most people I know manage the holidays, sometimes with some paid holiday clubs.
https://www.gov.uk/parental-leave/entitlement
My daughter is only 12 months but this is what I'll be doing when she's in school.
Fabulous_Research_21@reddit
TIL!
Apprehensive-Top3675@reddit
How do they track how much you've used if you change jobs?
Wonderful-Medium7777@reddit
This needs to be the top comment, as it may help others who were unaware of unpaid parental leave entitlement.
Spottyjamie@reddit
I didnt know
Asher-D@reddit
So a week a year basically?
LowarnFox@reddit
Sure but you are much less likely to need it when a child is 14+, so you can use more when they are younger.
Ornery-Wasabi-1018@reddit
Over 2 weeks per child per parent per year for the duration of primary school!
Loud_Fisherman_5878@reddit
I’m finding this hard to understand fully, is this in addition to the time taken off when they are a baby? As I took paid leave with work and then a few extra months unpaid to get me to a year so mine would be already used up, I think? But my partner only took a month off so he still has lots to use?
I’ve tried reading about this but not finding it clear so if anyone who understand it better than me can explain I would appreciate it!
TheDuraMaters@reddit
This is entirely separate from maternity/paternity leave. That stops when you go back to work, then you're eligible for parental leave.
Loud_Fisherman_5878@reddit
That’s great news, thanks for clarifying!
Downtown-Orchid-2257@reddit (OP)
!thanks to share the knowledge with those not in the know 😊
questions4all-2022@reddit
Thank you so much I had no idea this existed!
Awkward-Put-1005@reddit
Two parents working full time here, with one kid. In the summer holidays we’ll do a combo of holiday clubs (ranging from £30-£40 a day), a few days with the grandparents, clubbing in with friends for the day, and some days WFH so they can just watch tv all day whilst I work. Then we’ll go away on holiday for the last two weeks of August, as some holiday clubs can stop running by then where we are. I was worried about this too but we found things that work for us and you will to.
x-ThatGirl-x@reddit
I’ll get downvoted for this but this is why I don’t work. I have no friends to help & no family. The stress of working, children & finding childcare just isn’t worth it.
Scottish_Santa@reddit
What are these "grandparents" of which you all speak? 🤣
jolittletime@reddit
Out of that stage now but cobble.together a mix of working from home, play dates, grandparents, holiday clubs, grandparents using their holidays to come and stay. It's so stressful. What worked best was banding together with other working parents and taking turns to have all the kids play round each other's houses for a day or half day.
Forward-Article7035@reddit
We use a holiday club at his local school for only £18 a day (got a 30%). It works great for us 9 to 4 pm, plus there will be friends from school and his class. You can pay more for extended hours.
Curly_Edi@reddit
Fill tax free childcare account through the year. Spend it on summer camps in the summer.
BarefootJenna@reddit
When they were younger and I was working full-time, we were able to get some assistance with childcare through UC. The only problem being they pay it a month later so we, too, had to clear out our savings and cover some of the days they didn't have available with a babysitter, until they became available. Now that I'm working part-time, we get tax-free childcare. My husband still grumbles about the cost, but I'm not giving up on having a job in this economy.
Also, I put them in holiday club nearer my work, so that saves paying an extra hour for commuting time back to our village.
Our kids are nine and seven now and I finally feel like we have a grip on things and can save a wee bit every month.
BarefootJenna@reddit
Also to add, I save a bit up every month so those weeks we need childcare aren't just a huge chunk out of the monthly budget.
Known-Grapefruit4032@reddit
Build your village as much as poss. One way would be to team up with two other families, all have each other's kids on alternating days, and you and your partner could potentially take off one day in six each.
mynameisjodie@reddit
I have to change one of my work days and then either me or the husbandare home with the kids neither of us gets any down time and the house becomes a bit hostile. Holiday mum and dad are over tired overworked and a bit angry
Public-Temperature-1@reddit
I took a job where I work a flexible 4 day week mon-sat and my wife is part time, so for every week the children are off school we only need to use 1 day of annual leave each. If we are going away or something we take days off at the same time but this is how we do it for the bulk of their holidays.
Both working full time, without the cash to pay for holiday clubs or other childcare and unable to take any more time off would be very hard and I don't envy you. Sounds to me like you need to analyse priorities and consider a lifestyle shift. Be that in outgoing costs, employment arrangements or other means to either free up cash or time.
One-Coconut5397@reddit
We used to take how much holiday allowance we had take off 5 days each to allow ourselves a full family holiday then go through the school holiday calendar and see what dates we could use all our holiday for, often we would take 2-3 days on the 1-2 week holidays and pay daycare/ childminder for the remaining days any then for the full school 7 week holiday we would have a week either side of the holiday each so we covered the 3 full weeks of it without extra costs. Family could maybe help say 2 days of the week and you and your partner could work around the other days splitting this over 4 or 5 weeks then bite the bullet and pay for someone to look after them for the remaining days.
We had a neighbours daughter who was in A levels and for 2 years she did the daycare at £30 per day times have changed but you might be able to get one for about £50.00 per day. As the children got older 3 of us got together and I looked after their 2 children each for 1 week and then they did mine for a week each and this covered 3 full weeks of the school holidays at no extra cost. We were all in the same boat with costs and it really helped. Be smart and have a calendar out spread everything out and budget it over the year instead of it all hitting in one go.
Fit_General7058@reddit
Holiday clubs. They run most of the holiday.
The weeks they don't run, take annual leave between you
smallroundlemon@reddit
I very deliberately made friends with the parents of my kids classmates/ neighbours and then shared the childcare with them during holidays.
Remote-Jellyfish-551@reddit
You can’t have both parents working full time and have more than one child. This is the harsh reality of it.
In my family one parent had to give up their well paid job to look after our children full time because by the time childcare was paid for, commuting costs accounted for and the time/stress of juggling “normal” household chores was factored in it made more sense to be a single income family.
I also wanted my children to be able to do activities like football, ballet, gymnastics or whatever else they fancied, with a full time job this was never going to be possible due to the timings of it.
Unfortunately this is a huge loss of talent and income tax for the government in the longer term. The whole system needs fixed, many women want to work but it needs to fit around school/childcare. My family didn’t have children to ship them off to strangers for 12 hours a day so we can work.
LuckyStrawberry89@reddit
Don’t know why you’re being downvoted for this, this is the sad reality! It shouldn’t be the case but the system really isn’t set up for both parents to work full time (and ironically society isn’t set up financially anymore for both parents not to work full time)
Spottyjamie@reddit
I take some leave, wife takes some leave, school holiday club some dates, grandparents some dates
Its a morbid thought but grandparents arent getting any younger so unsure what we’d do if anything happened in the next few years
chuill@reddit
We used Sports Club when my kids were that age. Council run, cheaper than childminders, but they ran from 9-3 so not sure how you'd manage wraparound.
ConsiderationIll3361@reddit
In my house the wife works the whole way through takes the two weeks immediately after they go back to school off and then complains about not getting to spend any time with the kids.
I tend to take a couple of weeks off and get out and about as much as possible.
Think most folk who struggle split it and one takes two weeks then the other takes two weeks and then you’ve only got a couple of weeks to juggle
DeadPlank@reddit
Your wife works during the holidays and then has two weeks off for herself when she's back at school, and then complains. Are you okay with this?
ConsiderationIll3361@reddit
My wife’s holidays are hers to use as she chooses. I just remind her she could choose to take a holiday when the kids are actually off and then she’d be able to spend more time with them
Number60nopeas@reddit
I dont know what im more shocked by. Her doing this, or you being perfectly fine with it.
Poor kids.
vipros42@reddit
He doesn't seem like he is ok with it
DeadPlank@reddit
Seems like he has to be okay with it
cateml@reddit
It seems like this must have occurred to her.
Difficult strokes for different folks, if whatever your arrangement is works for you guys then all power to you.
But if I was you and my husband took his leave after the kids went back after I’d used my leave looking after them alone all holidays, I’d be fucking livid.
MrPogoUK@reddit
This reminds me of how my parents complain we never go anywhere with them whilst my in laws join us on all sorts of stuff, so they see far less of their only grandson. That’s because they refuse to leave their dog alone at home for more than about 90 minutes, which rules them out of pretty much everything.
Rough-Chemist-4743@reddit
I used to take unpaid leave. I was a 40% tax payer anyway so it didn’t feel that costly and it was lovely time with kids. My employer hated it though and I’ve since been made redundant. I suspect it was a factor. It’s a nightmare though - I feel your pain.
R4v3n_21@reddit
Honestly, I take the hit ££££.
I'm a single mum, I cannot make my leave stretch and my younger child has additional needs. I save up all year for a sports camp.ny eldest loves.
It's horrendous but we need to have a roof over our heads and food on the plates.
--dani8--@reddit
Unpaid parental leave is a day one right as of April 2026 so your length of service is irrelevant. You can have 18 weeks per child up to the age of 18. Capped at 4 weeks per year, usually you have to take it in full weeks too
WitchyWoo9@reddit
I work nights and since my kids were around 9 (13 now) I just make packed lunch in the morning and leave it in the fridge with snacks and sleep while they're at home. Prior to that I was lucky to work in a job that did set nights so I worked Saturday through Tuesday and paid for holiday club on a Monday then stayed up Tuesday with them, was gruelling!
Strong_Roll5639@reddit
A mix of staying home because we WFH, grandparents, friends and holidays.
JustLovelyStuff@reddit
OP please read this: unpaid parental leave is now a Day 1 right - no eligibility period. You can take it now. info
LowarnFox@reddit
I work in a job that's term time only, which does actually come with its own challenges, but it helps a lot with childcare, obviously.
For most families, it's a combination of annual leave, unpaid leave, paid childcare and relatives/friends helping out where possible. Plus WFH with children but do be aware that a lot of employers frown on this.
You mention that the "best" childcare is £80 a day (is that per child or both?) but in the summer holidays especially there will be other childcare options which may be a bit cheaper and even if they just enable your partner to work part of a day, then that's something?
It is a nightmare and hopefully if you settle in to your new job over the next year, it'll just be this year that is tricky. And in 4-5 years, your older child at least will be able to stay home alone?
luala@reddit
Have a shop around for kids clubs, a lot of them offer lower cost than 80 per day. Some take kids who don’t go to that specific school. My kid has gone to schools she doesn’t normally attend in order to use their kids clubs.
I do a mix. I meet up with girlfriends who have kids same age and trade days working/childcare. I go and stay with family and work remote, which I appreciate isn’t an option for everyone. I also take time off and so does my husband. Mine is now 6 and I’ve also done a few days where she just has a boring day at home, a lot of screen time and an outing with mummy before 8am and at lunchtime. It is what it is.
Kids clubs see to only run 10-3 which is fucking ridiculous.
Only consolation I can offer is this isn’t forever. I think I’ve got 3 more summers where I need to actively entertain her or pay for care.
It’s so weird how no one is having kids isn’t it?! /s
yearsofpractice@reddit
Hey OP. Married father of two here. Both my wife and I work full time in corporate-type jobs - flexible but not endlessly so. We’ve got two kids - 11 and 8.
We handle school holidays in one of two ways:
“Holiday clubs” for the majority of the time, which are pricy but the kids don’t mind them
Take staggered holiday for childcare - one week myself, second week my wife
It’s tough. We haven’t had a ‘real’ summer holiday in a few years due to the costs of childcare and imitations of corporate holidays at 25 days per year.
We’ve also had to make peace with the fact that we’re not being perfect Insta/FB parents spending all of our free time doing crafting and learning Latin with our precious kids (lol)
We’ve also had to - frankly - take some risks professionally, keeping kids at home some days when we’ve worked from home due to available days of holiday or prohibitive costs of childcare.
OP, it’s hard. School holidays are not a break - they’re an exercise in organisation and compromise. It’s not always possible to make the ends meet and sometimes the kids spend hours on the iPad or in front of TV when childcare/work conflict.
It does however bring us closer together as a family. It’s a bit of “us against the world” kind of vibe and we get a bit of a kick from that!
anoamas321@reddit
hoilday camps, they are much cheaper than nursry fees
WaltzFirm6336@reddit
OP you could do split half days with grandparents (if they are willing but not up to a full day!) Means a half day annual leave can become a full day of child care.
OutdoorApplause@reddit
I work from home so the plan is to jump ship to my parents and the in laws for a few weeks and they will look after her while I work from their houses.
leofoxx@reddit
Spending a ton of money in camps or taking unpaid time off. Sorry.
No_Information1030@reddit
Hiya, Can you work from Home?
Have you approached your employer?
I think if it were me, it’s sounds like you will be sorted for next year, I would try to get one day a week off from your leave, maybe your partner could do the same.. or can you work flexible hours around each other so always cover? Maybe ask parents for one day a week or if kids can stay one night a week, could you start earlier then and finish earlier? And maybe pay the £80 two days a week, not ideal but only for this year.
To be honest though, I’m not sure why you don’t qualify for a staff benefit. They couldn’t restricted against a new person who was pregnant and needed to go off in a short pace of time from joining, so I don’t know how they can you.. employee have legal obligations in regard to work life balance.
Good luck, you’ll pull it off, us mum always do 😊
kitknit81@reddit
We take our family holiday for two weeks at the start of the summer, we put our kid in usually two weeks of a holiday club and the remaining couple of weeks we share taking time off (hubby works shifts and usually has two week days off anyway) and also use some help from grandparents for a few days here and there (they’re getting older so I don’t want to put too much childcare on them). We’re lucky to have found a provider that does super affordable holiday clubs (between £100-150 for a full week vs the £50 a day I’ve seen others offer) which makes using the holiday clubs for summer, Easter and the October and February breaks much easier to afford. I do have to be strategic about using my annual leave throughout the year and plot it out on a spreadsheet so I know what I’m using a when, when hubby is going to be off, and what days I’ll need holiday clubs or help from grandparents.
Gremlin_1989@reddit
We WFH full time. We have one 7yo. She's with us most of the time. Grandparents do have her for some days, but not for multiple days at a time. We have a family holiday booked so that's a few days sorted. She will also get invited out with her friends whose parents don't work. But otherwise she muddles along at home, and we just have to accept that her bedroom is a mess at the end of the week.
Enough-Ad3818@reddit
We split the 6 weeks into 2 weeks of my leave, 2 weeks of my wife's leave, and a week of each set of grandparents.
I appreciate we're privileged enough to have our parents assist, but that's how we manage it. It eats into our leave entitlement, and my wife and I don't spend much time together as a couple, but it's pretty much what we signed up for when we had kids.
UnnecessaryStep@reddit
My husband has a term time contract, which works out at 80%. He works full time during the school terms, then has all holiday and inset off. Worked out a similar cost to holiday clubs and significantly less stress.
Hambutnotahamster@reddit
We’re doing 2 weeks of holiday club (spread out. Not back to back). 2 weeks of grandparents. 2 weeks of parent holiday.I get 10 days of free holiday club as a work benefit which really helps. I have realised though that we’re unlikely to be able to rely on grandparents so much going forward as they are getting frail faster than expected. At that point we may need to utilise unpaid parental leave.
BaBaFiCo@reddit
Try and break it up.
Week 1: You take leave
Week 2: Partner takes leave
Week 3: Your parents help out
Week 4: your partner's parents help out
If you can then get aunts or uncles to split it, looking after their kids when you're off and vice versa, you can get to six weeks.
Loud_Fisherman_5878@reddit
Unfortunately many of us don’t have one parent near by, let alone two sets plus aunts and uncles! Would be the dream!
Boredpanda31@reddit
My sibling was a single parent (no input from the other parent whatsoever) - the kids went to out of school clubs or a child minder (they would take some annual leave). I also helped out a lot, as did our parents when they could.
Clubs and minders were costly, but necessary to allow their parent to continue working.
Icy-Belt-8519@reddit
My partner has certain perks at work and he can 'buy' more holiday, was able to work from home 2 days a week but because of his health he has flexible work from home all but 2 mornings a week now, I work shift work and my mom helps a bit too, so we just line it all up together, we're definitely in quite a privileged position and appreciate it alot, we did use to do holiday clubs occasionally too
Happy_Raspberry1984@reddit
I (SAHM) used to have my best friends kid(s) here and there in the summer when they were in primary. The whole ~village thing. You kind of have to be able offer something back though, even if just date night babysitting.
Spike_Milligoon@reddit
My wife works FT but may take the odd day off. I’m self employed so either reduce my hours or have a hell of a busy week so I can take a couple of days off the next.
Other than that they are on screens, out playing in the garden or, now they are a bit older, going to see friends in the next street - which also means their friends come here which makes working a bit more difficult.
Ornery-Wasabi-1018@reddit
Honestly? I quit. Having worked all the way through them being tiny, and even the oldest going to school (because the nursery his younger brother was at would take him back), 2 at school broke us.
We used to have all bar one week with one parent off, use some grandparents time (they weren't local) and still didn't have enough leave. Holiday clubs round us only operated 9-3, and neither of us could wfh at that point.
Its taken me 5 years of graft after 5 years out to get back to the level I was at.
Foxtrot7888@reddit
Annual leave (we’ll take a couple of weeks off together for a holiday and then other days when only one parent is off) and holiday clubs mostly. A few days working from home while my 9 year old entertains herself. Grandparents are too infirm to help unfortunately (and also too far away).
urban_shoe_myth@reddit
Week 1, parent 1
Week 2, parent 2
Week 3, grandparent/childminder combo
Repeat
Or any combination of parent 1, 2, grandparents, childminder during each week that we could wangle. Couldn't always book a full week off work at a time, so we'd have to split it.
By the time 2020 came round and we started working from home full time, the kids were 14 and 15 and could sort themselves out anyway. Kind of salty I never had that opportunity when they were small, it would have been a total game changer.
Asher-D@reddit
I'm working full time, my partner isn't, so he'll watch the baby. My older child is hanging out with my mother for the summer, my mother insisted she take her since we moved so far away she's been missing her.
In the future, I'll be doing a combo of clubs, taking time off and having our families help care for them. We are very lucky though and my sister in law manages a club and she takes her for free.
himit@reddit
Are you using tax-free childcare?
Also try signing up for UC, you can get some childcare help for that too.
BG3restart@reddit
Combination of annual leave, holiday clubs and grandparents. Sharing childcare during annual leave with friends works too, particularly for your older child. Friend has your child one day and you have their child the next. At that age, the kids entertain each other.
I_am_legend-ary@reddit
A mixture of paid holidays and Summer Clubs
TD_Meri@reddit
I try to take the majority of my annual leave in the summer holidays. I “buy” an extra weeks holiday at work and use that too. Some places run holiday clubs/activity days that work out a lot cheaper than childcare. Do you have anything like that near you?
In the past I’ve had to take unpaid leave.
It’s an absolute headache but fortunately my daughter is a teenager now so I’m over the worst re childcare now thankfully.
pemberleypearls@reddit
Annual leave, book child into holiday club the rest of the time. You can always take unpaid parental leave but be warned you need to give your employer a fair bit of notice and it may need to be taken in chunks of a week.
Be grateful when school starts up again
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