What do working parents do during the school summer holidays?

super_furry

With fewer and fewer families able to afford to have a stay at home parent, how do the school summer holidays work? It's three months when the kids are at home and needing supervision. How do people manage? I'm sure grandparents might be able to help some people but is taking the summer off work ever something people have to do or are even allowed to do?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Some use family members, others take 'term time' flexible working, some pay child-minders, other use clubs. It can be expensive sometimes but there are ways and means.

super_furry

super_furry wrote: »

With fewer and fewer families able to afford to have a stay at home parent, how do the school summer holidays work? It's three months when the kids are at home and needing supervision. How do people manage? I'm sure grandparents might be able to help some people but is taking the summer off work ever something people have to do?

au pair might be a good idea for summer. I know a couple who have one.

Teenager with a mammy who is near by just in case.

Beyondgone

Tether them in the garden and leave plenty of water.

RedXIV

We've done au pair's and family to date. Thank god herself has two teenage cousins down the road or we'd be screwed. Although I reckon in 2 more years, they'll probably be looking for real jobs

Guess I'll have to win the lotto by then

I was left in charge of a 6 week old baby during he summer holiday when I was 13 but the authorities would be called in if anyone did that today.

Tigger

Lea Prickly Gap wrote: »

Some use family members, others take 'term time' flexible working, some pay child-minders, other use clubs. It can be expensive sometimes but there are ways and means.

Only public service get term time tho and not all of them

_Brian

Combination of stuff.

They go to granny's some days, not too many but the odd one.

Herself takes some of her parental leave for a few weeks.

When eldest is off and younger one is in national school, the eldest comes to work with me some days, it's handy I travel for work a good bit.

Then there's a few weeks we're all off to France for holidays.

The Backwards Man

When there's turf to be footed, hay to be stacked, stones to be lifted, cattle to be dosed, there's no need to worry about watching wains.

andekwarhola

My wife works part time so she's off 3 days midweek plus I can work from home if needs be. We generally only need one day covered a week in the summer holidays which my mother is happy to do for us.

We're really lucky. My heart really goes out to working parents that are crucified in this country.

airvan

You give up work and cancel your dreams and your career if you're lucky your spouse earns enough to keep all of you. Sometimes you do what I did and bring them to work dumping them in the break room with Sky TV. They loved it but it wasn't ideal.
Sometimes you find someone to mind them. I've both done that and been on the receiving end sometimes staying overnight with other people's kids.
It's not easy.

PandaPoo

My brother and his wife work full time so leave the 3 kids in our mams. She loves it. I'm tempted to tell her I got a part time job so she'll mind my two and I can have a few days a week to sit on my arse at home.

Just kidding I'm a stay at home mam so I do that anyway

Lucy8080

Over-time! And as much as is available.

Ubbquittious

They keep the child up one night around when the holiday starts and wait till he's very tired and then they drop him off with his favourite toys at some launderette or other inconspicuous business while he sleeps in the car. From there he's put into a hidden dumbwaiter type lift with all his stuff and brought down to this big subterranean labyrinth where someone moves him to a very small bedroom thats only a few ft high and a few wide but he doesn't care because he's asleep.

When he starts to wake up his cot is transported to what looks like a real enough bedroom but with holographs and other trickery to make it seem like home so he gets up and runs to the kitchen where his breakfast is already on the table and as he walks in he's shown a shadow of a mammy-like figure running out the door and shouting "back in a minute". As soon as he finishes his breakfast a slightly older girl runs in the door right on que and invites him out to play.

The girl brings him outside, down a narrow passage and up a long stairs into a park full of 100s of kids running around and a massive playground. There'd be a marquee set up with a few mammies handing out drinks and snacks under some tall leafy trees. They'd stay here till the evening before instinctively heading back to someone's house (there are only about 2-3 houses on the outskirts of the park but fake facades makes it look like there are dozens but they all have aggressive holographic dogs guarding them so nobody discovers their fakeness. But the park is actually real and can be seen from google maps but is surrounded by fences and a few buildings and is impossible to get at without using the underground stairs.

Before being brought back to bed one of the very few mammies around might make an excuse to say that their actual mammy isn't around and that they're going for a sleepover. As soon as they fall asleep their cots are transported on rails to their tiny bedrooms which they never see. If any of them wake up during the night they're automatically transported back to what looks like their own room (using holograms) and someone wearing a face mask and wig that looks like their mammy consoles them and puts them back to sleep. There's about 5-10 mammies staffing the place at night and they sit in a big room with a few sofas knitting and chatting while having the odd brandy. Sometimes in the morning while on the way to work the child's actual mammy might make a guest appearance and wake them up lest they cop on that the people wearing the face masks aren't their mammies.

It's only good until they reach about 7 or 8. Any child older than that is likely to cop onto the inconsistencies and throw a big tantrum fit. Each mammy will have to take a few holidays to help staff the place but a lot is automated. They keep the kids happy with iPads and movies which helps pass the hours away

Dravokivich

When I grew up it was older kids help out with the younger kids. Kids are great for keeping each other in check when you tease them with some responsibility.

beertons

I work Sunday's to have Monday's off, so I'll be minding them on Monday. Tuesday, creche, 730-430. Wednesday, I'm off too. Thursday in my mother's, they love it. And Friday, Mrs beery is off. Creche bill is fairly low.

freshpopcorn

The secondary school holidays are three months. Do secondary school children really need child minders during the day?
Things must have changed a lot since I was a teenager and I'm only 25.

biscuithead

Bogger parents can send them to the farm to their bogger cousins for the summer. When they come back to dublin in later august its like they attended special forces training they are a couple of inches taller from drinking unpasteurised milk straight from the cow, they are half a stone heavier because they got the slags if they couldn't devour 6 potatoes with their bacon and cabbage like their little 4 year old cousin, Patsy. They are tanned and covered in cuts and scars that they take no notice of but what would normally have you calling an ambulance.

The 11 year old boy would also throw a reddener because he'd have a love letter from 13 year old aoife or caoimhe, the village "it" girl.

Boom_Bap

We use our holidays, scramble for good kids clubs, cash in every favour with family and friends, go to work at ludicrous hours, become master jugglers and make sure our kids are happy and healthy.



Just like every other day of the year really.

everlast75

Implicate them in a crime that carries a 3 month sentence

dark crystal

My second eldest daughter (18) will be finished college for the summer, so she's been lumbered with her seven year old brother three days a week from July-August. We'll send him to the creche for the other two days.

It's a juggling game and we're lucky she's willing to do it or we'd be rightly stuck.

Capt'n Midnight

send them off to learn Irish

FrStone

Tigger wrote: »

Only public service get term time tho and not all of them

Don't lie. Every parent is entitled to the same unpaid parental leave those in the public service get.

whoopsadoodles

FrStone wrote: »

Don't lie. Every parent is entitled to the same unpaid parental leave those in the public service get.

That's not what term time is.

Term time is when you work school terms, get the holidays off and get paid the pro rata rate over 12 months.

It can be given for your lifetime, not just the 18 weeks parental leave all are entitled to take before their child's 8th birthday.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Tigger wrote: »

Only public service get term time tho and not all of them

Two things. Firstly, I know Private Sector workers who avail of Term Time Working. Secondly, I said "some" people, along with other means.

It's only 2 months for primary school.

Lia_lia

When I was 14 I used to mind a one year old during the summer. For about 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. Sometimes would babysit at night too. Got paid 15-20 euro a day. :rolleyes:. I'm guessing this kind of thing still happens.

Winterlong

Our 6 year old will be in 8 camps over the 8 weeks of summer holidays. The daycare place has arranged it all. We just drop him off as normal etc.

koumi

Lia_lia wrote: »

When I was 14 I used to mind a one year old during the summer. For about 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. Sometimes would babysit at night too. Got paid 15-20 euro a day. :rolleyes:. I'm guessing this kind of thing still happens.

I mind my sisters kids every other weekend, I'm a little bit older than 14 though I get reimbursed with a box of tobacco sometimes. I imagine I'll be on standby over the summer too but I'm also being called on to stay with my mother for a few months this year and will more than likely be fulfilling a carers role there. She had both knees replaced over the last ten years and lives in a very large house which is needing to be maintained. (unpaid too but I'm thinking of planting a garden and doing some painting and decorating so I'm kind of looking forward to it-actually I think it's going to be more like a summer holiday for me and I'm looking forward to getting away)

Mrs OBumble

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

send them off to learn Irish

You know they learn about same amount of irish as the gangs of Spanish kids you see in the city here learn English, right?

crossmolinalad

Dump them on summer camps like the Yanks are doing

purplecow1977

super_furry wrote: »

With fewer and fewer families able to afford to have a stay at home parent, how do the school summer holidays work? It's three months when the kids are at home and needing supervision. How do people manage? I'm sure grandparents might be able to help some people but is taking the summer off work ever something people have to do or are even allowed to do?

It's 2 months.

13 year olds could manage I'm sure.

koumi

purplecow1977 wrote: »

It's 2 months.

13 year olds could manage I'm sure.

I mind an eight year old and a 13 year old. They don't like being left in the home by themselves all day and caring for an 8 year old is a bit risky for a 13 year old. They also need feeding and just general supervision in case of an accident. Cant expect 13 year old to do that. I'm not sure it would be legal actually.

purplecow1977

koumi wrote: »

I mind an eight year old and a 13 year old. They don't like being left in the home by themselves all day and caring for an 8 year old is a bit risky for a 13 year old. They also need feeding and just general supervision in case of an accident. Cant expect 13 year old to do that. I'm not sure it would be legal actually.

No, that's true. But the 13 year old could surely be okay on their own? Or just organise for a childminder for during the day. The 8 year old doesn't finish school until end of June.

Sleeper12

Deleted User wrote:

au pair might be a good idea for summer. I know a couple who have one.

They have to be paid minimum wage now. No longer cheap labour

koumi

purplecow1977 wrote: »

No, that's true. But the 13 year old could surely be okay on their own? Or just organise for a childminder for during the day. The 8 year old doesn't finish school until end of June.

I only get them at weekends when both mam and dad are busy. The 13 year old is perfectly capable she just doesn't like being alone, callers to the house or just general security reasons I guess.

freshpopcorn

koumi wrote: »

I only get them at weekends when both mam and dad are busy. The 13 year old is perfectly capable she just doesn't like being alone, callers to the house or just general security reasons I guess.

The 13 year old needs grow up a little!

koumi

freshpopcorn wrote: »

The 13 year old needs grow up a little!

She's in the process of being assessed for aspergers She's actually a good kid she just spends all day with her nose in a book, its hardly fair for her to have to take responsibility for the home when her parents are not there though.

freshpopcorn

koumi wrote: »

She's in the process of being assessed for aspergers She's actually a good kid she just spends all day with her nose in a book, its hardly fair for her to have to take responsibility for the home when her parents are not there though.

I suppose if theirs an issue like Asperger's then it's fine but I'd find it unhealthy for the average teenager to want someone with them at home for the whole Summer!

koumi

freshpopcorn wrote: »

I suppose if theirs an issue like Asperger's then it's fine but I'd find it unhealthy for the average teenager to want someone with them at home for the whole Summer!

wish someone would have told my own one, she was still giving out when she was 16 if I left her on her own for long periods of time. (single parent though so was probably more of a kind of separation anxiety)

she's 23 now and has practically pre booked me into a nursing home, got my house keys and is moving me out...very slowly

andekwarhola

Lia_lia wrote: »

When I was 14 I used to mind a one year old during the summer. For about 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. Sometimes would babysit at night too. Got paid 15-20 euro a day. :rolleyes:. I'm guessing this kind of thing still happens.

When I was that age (late 80s), I used to babysit two kids for my neighbours every Saturday when they went out in the lash from about 8PM-3AM and I got 4 quid (punts).

Sometimes I got a bag of chips as well.

Kids get paid by the hour these days. Depending on your era it's all relative :pac:

Lady is a tramp

My mum planned ahead, she was a primary school teacher! So whenever we were on holidays, so was she. Not sure what would be worse though - looking after 30 strangers' kids, or looking after 7 of your own little monsters ... I seem to remember being shipped off to summer camps or Gaelteachts or CTYI most summers anyways!

Victor

Beyondgone wrote: »

Tether them in the garden and leave plenty of water.

That's outrageous!!! There's no WiFi in the garden!

super_furry wrote: »

It's three months when the kids are at home and needing supervision.

Not really. If they are over, say, 14 years, they only need modest supervision. If they are under 12-13, they only get 2 months for summer.

Tigger wrote: »

Only public service get term time tho and not all of them

Not quite. Lots of factories shut down for all of August. Some industries, e.g. heavy maintenance for aircraft, are heavily concentrated in the winter and can give staff time off during summer.

mymo

Single parent since mine was about 7, I could work up hours during the year and work 3 days during the summer, she'd go to a friends, camps, her nanny one day (on dads side, I had no family in Ireland) and I'd take friends kids when off and they were working. Juggling, it's hard, once she was about 14 she was fine, small town so her and her friends would cycle the river and go swimming etc. She even came to work with me a few times.
I work in a place with childcare facility, not with kids myself, but I see how hard it is for parents now, it's much worse, harder being in city too.

Hannibal_Smith

Boom_Bap wrote: »

We use our holidays, scramble for good kids clubs, cash in every favour with family and friends, go to work at ludicrous hours, become master jugglers and make sure our kids are happy and healthy.



Just like every other day of the year really.

Same here. I only work 3.5 days anyway. But I save my hols so I can take Mondays off for the summer so it's only 3 days. With the childminder we pay even if the kids aren't there (she's available but we chose not to send them type deal) but they do summer camps too so we end up paying more during the hols. The youngest is a bit mad, so I'm a bit cautious about sending him to a camp. I'm hoping his brother will look out for him but don't want to be putting that burden on him either. So I'm still undecided whether one or both will do one.

The summer hols are usually ok because there's lots of stuff on and you can get outside with them. It's the mid terms and easter / Halloween times that end up so pricey because most things are indoors.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Tigger wrote: »

Do they work in education?

Is that meant to be funny? If not, it makes little sense.

No, they are not in Education. "Private Sector" for a start, plus why would anybody in education need to agree Term Time Working arrangements with their employer?