Mum’s interesting child care solution for the school holidays

Posted in Work and Finance.
sponsored-image

The school holidays have always been a conundrum for working parents with school-aged kids. We still have to go to work but who’s going to look after the kids?

Often, it’s a mish mash of things. Some days they go to vacation care, others they might hang with the grandparents, or maybe you and your partner take a few days off to cover the care. In America, they often ship their kids off to camp for the three months of summer break!

But one mum has suggested an interesting resolution for this time Tetris we do.

Could we get rid of school holidays entirely?

A parent on Mumsnet is suggesting that we just do away with school holidays entirely.

“Run schools like a regular workplace in that they operate 52 weeks of the year. Teachers and students to get four weeks allocated holiday allowance per year and parents can use this at their discretion. Staff would be able to be more flexible and they would have more time in the year to teach children at a more realistic pace?”

Hmmmm … Intriguing! Imagine not having to pay for any form of holiday care. Ever!


Read more on working parents:


The thread has mixed responses. Some agree, saying;

“Five-year-olds have more energy than me, why do they need all these breaks? How will they ever learn to be an adult if we keep treating them like children?”

Listen to Kinderling Conversation:

And another one says, “If they are in child care anyway during the summer months how would it be any different to keeping in the routine of going to school.”

While others say that children still need time off in between their learning.

“The daily grind starts soon enough, and once it starts it never lets up. Let children be children.”

Why don’t we make work more like school?

What if we flipped it? What if we made working hours reflect school hours? And therefore, made working holidays reflect school holidays?

It can be really hard to find after school care, particularly for inner city areas, where capacity for after school care varies, and is in high demand. And especially when children are new to school, sending them to vacation care when they could be getting down time at home feels cruel and unnecessary. The success of balancing work and school is very dependent on the services your area provides and how your child feels about them.

If we made shorter working days, like they’ve trialled in Sweden (with positive reviews), life would be much easier for the working parent.

 This post was originally published on Kinderling Kids RadioDownload the Kinderling app for more great stories. 

Share

Get more babyology straight to your inbox