How are you dealing with the stress of juggling childcare and work over the school holidays?
Not very well, if readers’ feedback to this very question is anything to go by.
Having passed the halfway point of the kids’ school holidays, and with the list of things to do with the kids drying up, we asked you how you were getting on.
For all the joys of summer, I have to admit that many of the responses chimed with my own feelings (is it really still July?).
Reader Fi Milne said simply “with great difficulty”, and Rachael Taylor said “not very well”, which echoed the views of many parents.
And Shona Alexander joked: “Loads of gin!”
School holidays: ‘The same storm but no-one is in the same boat’
Leanne Stewart said: “It’s a nightmare. Especially when they’re again off for two weeks in October.”
Viktoria Simpson said: “I’m a childminder – I’m now thinking I should have got a childminder for my own kids!”
Sarah Medcraf said: “It’s another example of being in the same storm but no-one is in the same boat. We all juggle in our own way. Some find it easier than others.”
Courtney Johnston wondered how many parents have kids at home while they work.
“I’ve come across so many workplaces who don’t allow this and I think it’s mad, especially if they’re older.”
Louise Tennant agreed. “It is a struggle. Workplaces need to become more flexible.”
Alison Gilbert admitted to doing “a lot of work from 8pm onwards every night” to make up for time lost looking after the kids during the day.
‘We seem to be going through an enormous amount of food’
Teacher Lauri Bruce is feeling the strain despite being off work throughout the school holidays.
“I find my class of five-year-olds easier than my three children!” she said.
Rachel Gaunt said: “We seem to be going through an enormous amount of food.”
Some parents paid tribute to local youth clubs. Jacqueline McGregor said she couldn’t manage without Wick Youth Club, for example.
Some parents think summer holidays are too long
Elizabeth Jones feels summer holidays are unnecessarily long.
“It’s really tough, particularly with a severely autistic child.
“I think this pampering attitude of giving children six or seven weeks off to laze about is damaging.
“Once they hit 16 and the real world, they’ll get a shock when they realise that the world doesn’t just stop every summer for almost two months.”
Nick Banks suggested the summer holiday should be four weeks. “Take the other two and add one to Christmas and one to Easter.”
However, Patricia Duncan questioned whether anything had changed compared to previous generations.
“We all had to work while juggling our children’s holidays.
“It isn’t any more expensive for childcare than it was way back – we had less wages, but always seemed to cope.”
When are the schools back?
Schools in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and Highland go back on Tuesday, August 20, while in Moray schools are back on Wednesday, August 14.
Conversation