School holidays and annual leave

[peanutter]

So ... The average school has around 12 (13?) weeks of school holidays per annum, plus curriculum days.

The average full time employee has four weeks of annual leave - and plenty have to take 1-3 of those over Christmas, if the workplace is actually closed ... So how do people manage the rest of the time??

Extended family? Holiday care programs? Kids at home alone?

Very interested to hear.

[Doing my best]

A bit of all (except kids home alone cause they are 5&6).

My dad lives with us, but he goes to my brothers every school holidays (in another state). Although he is here and helps the first half of Christmas holidays.

So I have used vacation care, friends, sent my dd to my mum's. Had the Inlaws come from Nz, taken time off, DH taking some time off these holidays while I work the whole 2nd week to cover someone else.

It is hard and costly, but we utilise vacation care the most. As you say, 13 weeks kids holidays, vs 4 weeks parents leave.

[sahbear]

So ... The average school has around 12 (13?) weeks of school holidays per annum, plus curriculum days.

The average full time employee has four weeks of annual leave - and plenty have to take 1-3 of those over Christmas, if the workplace is actually closed ... So how do people manage the rest of the time??

Extended family? Holiday care programs? Kids at home alone?

Very interested to hear.

Fantastic question, have been thinking the same thing lately!

[CoNNiE_Melb]

I think about this all the time - would love to hear what people do...

[Artechim]

I was going to post the same thing. I have applied for a full time job and think we can manage the day to day stuff but I have no idea what to do with the kids during the holidays.

As far as I can figure out, there is a holiday program at one of the local schools but it fills up fast so you have to book early. The IL's will also be happy to have them for some of the time, but I would never ask them to do the whole lot - especially the summer holidays. I am just hoping that I can figure something out because at this stage the only thing stopping me from returning to work is the holiday issue.

[Amity]

I only have half holidays as the boys are with XH for the rest. And I'm lucky enough to be self employed so take time off in holiday sbut it is unpaid.

My folks also help out as does DP

It used to be easier - but I can't send DS1 to vacation care because last time he went he didn't cope well and now ds2 is scared of it too. So now it's messy.

[Mumma T]

Even though mine and my siblings kids are still only little, we were talking about this recently. My sister and brother both have great inlaws who would be happy to help out but we also discussed spliting the holidays between the three families and each having some days off too. We figure between the six adults it would be the easiest way and then the cousins all get to play together too. It would be a headache for the parent "on duty to deal with 6 or 7 children in one go but it's not like it would be a week straight.

[Tinks]

My mum and sister get school holidays off so my kids go between them. I am very lucky.

[AnyDream]

Recurring motif in my house!!!

I work parttime, so this does give me some flexibility, because I'm planning days, not whole weeks. I use several strategies:

* Accrue flextime by working extra days/half days in the weeks prior to the holidays then use some of that
* Purchase annual leave & take it selectively through the holiday period (this smooths the cost of extra weeks of leave over the whole financial year)
* I take my annual leave at half pay. This is the most expensive option but one I use a lot because it also gives me the precious gift of TIME. It also means we never have much spending $ for school holiday fun! LOL
* Booking DD into those days of vacation care where they are running activities/excursions that are of interest to her. Our school doesn't have its own vac care program, so we "shopped around" and tried a few different services. We've got one now that is our preferred, regular service, but you need to book early because the best days book out quickly
* Hubby and I stagger our annual leave. We both get Christmas/New Year off at the same time.
* Oldest daughter (teen) spends a few days staying at her grandies' house each hols.
* In the past, DD1 was in family day care, so vacation care was often with the FDC lady. However places here are really scarce so that hasn't worked with DD2.

I've noticed other families rely heavily on grandparents & siblings, but we've never had that resource to draw on.

I'm a bit weird, because I also organise care for a day each week when I'm at home, so I still get some kid-free time, either to get stuff done (ie, study) or just personal time out. Less important during the small breaks but critical over the summer hols when I'm already a bit of a crazy lady due to the circadian nightmare that is daylight savings.

[Teeki]

My SIL has her parents (my inlaws) look after the kids every holidays. They used to live 4 hours away so they were living with the inlaws for the whole time, and it seems to me that they began to resent the arrangement. I don't think I'd like to do this, mostly because we live too far away. Maybe things will change by the time school comes around.

I have two other friends that use the care provided by the school the kids go to. The kids love it because it's a new activity every day and they see their friends. Because mine are already in daycare 5 days a week anyway, I think we'd probably use this option, it wouldn't be completely foreign to them.

[RainbowRiver]

When it's my XH week with the kids, he sends them to vacation care 4 days and has 1 day off work. In Christmas holidays when vacation care doesn't run, his mum usually flies them up to her place and they stay for a 1-2 week block

Im a sahm so always have them

[nothing2lose]

I chose school teachers as parents

I have done a bit of everything mentioned. DP and I staggering leave, DD going to ex for half hols (only happened for a couple of years), holiday program (can get very expensive if you don't qualify for CCB), friends , inlaws, etc, etc .... mostly though, we rely on DD going to my parents' (who live two hours away).

[~clover~]

My last job I took because they asked ME if I wanted it & it was their choice to work around holidays & weekends/sick kids etc.
I have done some holiday work, where I've left 2 home & had 2 with me, or with friends. But this was a cleaning job, 3 minutes away. I could go back & forth as needed, they were able to call me if needed. Very small town. Walking distance away.

Dd1 will be at boarding school next year. There is no vacation care here. Only 1 day a week mobile day care, so those with younger kids who want to work need to be able to rely on each other, or family. I don't have that.

My work place next year will be across from where I live, and dd1 will be home for holidays, so I'll mostly rely on her. But usually all them at home won't work, so I'll send one or 2 off to alternating friends houses those days. It'll only be 2/3 days a week, so I'm not leaving them alone full time. Hopefully I can work that without too much drama!

[~me~]

We manage between the School Holiday Program, taking leave ourselves, grandparents (on my DH side only). This all spread out over the year to accommodate the school holidays.
I have been working part time, so this helps. We are now roll changing so it will not be a problem.

It's tough going as I work in a team and we all have school age kids, not everyone can have the time off at the same time.

[BlackCat]

I only have to sort half holidays. I ask for them 12 months in advance as LWOP. I get no holiday pay anyway so ferret away and bit here and there and budget, budget, budget. We do a lot of no cost activities in our holiday time.

[Nai]

I get additional leave with work so I can generally mange but we do a combination of

- DP works Saturdays so gets a weekday off
- swap days with friends and their kids
- grandparents
- holiday program at school
- kids come to work with one of us

I would look into purchasing extra leave by being paid 48/52 as it means although your take home is less you don't miss out on pay like leave without pay.

[Chocaholic]

We don't have any family nearby so I send them both to vacation care. I made sure that the school I chose had an outside hours school care program that had vacation care every holidays.

Both DH and I work fulltime so I rely on the vacation care. It costs just over $1k for two kids for two weeks so I budget all term to cover the school holidays. Christmas holidays are the worst as they are so long and the boys finish school at the end of the first week of December. Both DH and I try to take at least 3 weeks off in total but with public holidays etc, then we usually only take about 12 days instead of 15 in leave.

It is not great but I don't have any alternative. At least my boys love vacation care as they have so many activities.

[feeb]

Holiday program which DS1 loves going to as such an awesome range of activities. 1st term went to some friends and my mum looked after him sadly no longer an option.