School holidays and annual leave

[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.