What do you do with kids in the holidays when you work full time?

[AintNobodyHereButUsChickens]

I’m about to start work for the first time since being a parent. Two kids ages 7 and 14, and I’ve been a SAHM since going on maternity leave with my eldest. It’s always worked just fine for us but not anymore and I’ve frantically been trying to get a job since September. Finally got one if I want it but now I’m puzzled about what to do with the kids. Or at least the 7yr old anyway.

The eldest goes to school in a different county to the one we live in so her school holidays are often different to the youngest’s. For example, I had 3 weeks of Easter hols, 1 week with just the eldest, 1 week with both and 1 week with just the youngest.

Not really any family who can help unless my SIL doesn’t mind them hanging around all day while she WFH. DH is self employed so it costs £180 for every day he doesn’t work.

What does everyone else do?!

Pay for childcare, holiday clubs etc

Childminder
Holiday clubs
Friends
Family
Nanny
Annual leave

Combination of them all.

Not in the situation of self employed but I used to use my annual leave in school holidays mostly opposite my husband, or would arrange with a school friend I would look after their child if they had mine the following week.

when this didn’t work I would book school holiday activities, summer camp, theatre school etc

now mine are both teenagers they just stay at home together

Holiday clubs. My school holidays are a patchwork of various paid for holiday clubs.

He's 14 now, so no childcare needed, but when he was younger, he did a combination of holiday camps and paid childcare -- his wraparound care offered holiday places.

And yes to concentrating all possible annual leave in school holidays and childswapping with other parents to cover.

Mostly holiday clubs, that’s the most cost effective.

Can your 14 year old look after the 7 year old some days so she gets downtime at home?

Also if you’re part time see if you can do swaps with friends (ie you have their kid Mondays, they have yours Wednesdays etc).

Annual leave
Holiday clubs
Unpaid leave
Share leave between both parents
Swaps with other parents
Look for childminders who have school holiday places due to having teachers' children
Temporary nanny

Most is expensive, but you just have to view it as a cost that enables you to earn an annual salary / income

I have a spreadsheet to organise it, but it's mostly holiday clubs (three different ones) and annual leave. If your school does a holiday club you'll need to get in quick to book it, ours is almost full now (goes on sale in September) and it only runs for two weeks.

We'll do a long weekend away and maybe one or two days with grandparent, but it's basically paid childcare or one of us using our annual leave. DH and I share out the holidays equally - both salaried but surely your DH takes days off sometimes? He needs to step up and do some childcare - it won't be for long as your youngest is almost 7.

At a push I could do the odd day WFH with a 7 year old around, but it would be no fun for either of us.

DH and I both only take annual leave in school holidays and tag team it so I'll cover one week, he'll cover the next etc. We have one week in the summer off together for a family holiday and then bank holidays and Christmas but the rest of the time we divide our annual leave up.

The rest is holiday clubs. We pay a set amount a month into an account for childcare and then that pays for the clubs in the school holidays. It's much easier than trying to find the money to cover summer holidays upfront.

Your 14 year old shouldn’t need childcare so it’ll just be your 7 year old to worry about. We do a mix of annual leave and holiday clubs. Holiday clubs are a lot less then a days salary, and you can often use tax free childcare to take 20% off.

You piece it together, paid childcare, favours from relatives, swopping with other parents and annual leave

Single parent. I use annual leave, holiday clubs, my exh has them sometimes, my mum sometimes.

Yes this is what i did too as a single mum.
my family never helped - so friends and paid help and annual leave and clubs were everything. Its so hard.

Myself and DH used Annual leave. We’d also use holiday clubs, grandparents - a mixture of all of the above.

Holiday clubs
visits to relatives
annual leave

We used annual leave, we were part time and did two short days, three longer days each, so we each took off our shorter ones and then they went to their grandparents one day a week.

If there was a good holiday club we did that for a week.

A week's family holiday in the summer.

It meant we only really had one week's holiday together in the summer and Christmas together, but it's not forever.

Their old nursery could take them in the holidays up to 8 (though I don’t think I used it past 6&5)
Annual leave
Holiday clubs (leisure centre, football clubs)
My colleague once used a holiday club at a school near our office
The church used to do a week’s holiday club
Half days sometimes, friends have mine for the morning and I’d take theirs in the afternoon
Sister in law used to volunteer to stay for a week in the summer holidays (crazy woman)
Grandma

We paid for holiday clubs. Our preferred one was extremely expensive, but they had a full time nurse onsite and that was important given our child’s medical needs. We just considered the cost an annual expense to make it sting less.

as she got older, we also added some 7-14 day overnight experiences to the mix. Things like spending a week staying in student housing at a university and exploring a subject of interest or traveling abroad with a group from school.

I agree with a previous poster that your husband needs to step up too - he should calculate his rates to take account of needing to take time off for childcare, it's not fair to shirk that and leave it to you. Surely he prices his time with some contingency?

It’s not really rocket science.

We both take leave, together and seperate.
Use both sets of grandparents occasionally.
Share days with sister in law occasionally.
Pay do childcare.

Switch them off.

You can find the ON/OFF button under a velcro patch at the back.

🤣🤣🤣

That’s a lot of assumptions there. He’s been taking care of us by himself, financially, for 15 years. It’s time I stepped up if anything! He gets home at roughly 4.30 and in my new job I won’t be getting home until gone 5.30, and often gone 7.30 with mandatory overtime so he’ll be doing a lot of stepping up, into my role.

Not that it’s any of your business but he’s a sub contractor and so technically has a ‘boss’ of sorts and doesn’t set his own rate.

I don't understand why he's stepping into "your role" by dealing with his own kids for a couple of hours, it's just parenting.