UK mums what do you do in the holidays?

We’re in the same boat. Me and my partner will need to work out our annual leave so that we’re off but means we will never be off together. The other option is to take a few weeks of unpaid parental leave each year (I think you’re entitled to a total of 16 weeks until your child is 12, and all employers need to honour it). X

Currently I have a small part time role in a school but I know by the time both children are in school it won’t be financially viable anymore, so I think we’d use a combination of family, annual leave and holiday clubs 😅 I honestly don’t know how people do it!! Some people are lucky enough to find childminders who will offer just school holidays

Thank fuck I have an understanding boss and can work flexibly, I work my hours but the opposite way. So say normally I work 9am-4pm, during school hols I will look after my daughter during the day and come 5pm when my partner gets home from his job, we swap and he takes over childcare and that’s when I start my work hours so I usually finish around midnight and then go to bed and start the day over etc. We literally only have each other. No village, holiday clubs far too expensive, no family. If I didn’t have the option to work flexibly, I would’ve had to have quit because what other choice do you have? Even if you both take off annual leave, that’s still only 4 weeks each, so 8 total. School hols are 15 weeks! So what are you supposed to do with the other 7 weeks? Holiday clubs round here are £60 per day!

I used to split the holidays between me and my oh which covered ten weeks roughly and then do holiday clubs. I only worked part time but changed it to shorter longer days and oh doesn’t work Mondays. That worked well until my son got an EHCP and everywhere refused to take him.

@Neena what do you do for work? I'm a single mum and I don't have a village so it's literally just me, I think I will have to pay for a holiday club but I'm not sure how I will afford it

@Karen what's ehcp?

I’m a Paralegal. This is the subject no one likes to talk about. If you don’t have family to look after your children during holidays, you are essentially screwed. Incog are you claiming all the benefits you’re entitled to? Work out how much holiday clubs will be for 11 weeks (4 weeks use annual leave) and see if you can afford it. There may be no point returning to work if it’s not cost effective and leaving you in a deficit because you still need to factor in drop-off/pick up too and that’s assuming zero illness during the year too which is unrealistic.

I think you can still use the tax free childcare for holiday clubs up to age 12 x

It's our first proper year of doing it this year. Even if my husband and I took all our annual leave off separately we wouldn't be able to cover the full 13 weeks they have off. So, we'll be using a mix of annual leave, holiday club and family. Thankfully my mum is moving closer so family is now and option - we've never had help before!

@Neena I assume you need qualifications for that haha. I am yeah, my daughter is in her final year of nursery currently. My job hours are fairly flexible but I have to be in the office and I can't bring my daughter with me. I'm also not working full time I do 3 days, so I don't get full annual leave either. It's better for me to be working even with nursery costs, when I was on benefits not working (only for a year as my previous job was unsociable hours so no nurseries were open) I only got £550 a month to live off, for all my food and bills and every month was so tight, my electric alone costs about £200 a month as I'm renting so most of the appliances are not energy efficient, had to pay extra £100 towards rent as not covered by LHA, £40 water, £40 council tax, left with £170 each month which is about £35-42 a week for food toiletries nappies wipes travel clothes if needed etc

@Chelsea I don't get tax free childcare but I'm on universal credit so maybe they can help, thank you x

I’ve tried to book AL during some holidays, and my partner will have to book the odd week off to do the same. The other days I’ll have to see if family can help. I’m anxious too 😩 x

Going to be dealing with this soon as my son’s new nursery is like in between full time and term time only. He’s off the month of August so I posted in a local mums & dads group for childminder recommendations. Saw a couple and are locking in one for August + maybe future times he’s off