I know there are some variations on half-term or Spring break if you are reading this in the US, but regardless of the holiday label, it’s a challenging time for the WoMo with big kids. With a baby, typically you will have a childcare schedule in place almost 52 weeks a year. When the big kids are at school a whole new set of logistics begins.
There are kids clubs, and holiday camps and there are temporary nannies and family help (if you are lucky enough to have it), but how do you make it all work?
I’ve had some brilliant suggestions from fellow WoMos over the last few weeks:
- I packed mine off to the cinema one afternoon. My eldest is 13 so she watches the younger two and I sit in the coffee shop outside catching up with my emails.
- My neighbour can watch them one of the days. She has older children who have left home and loves a day of baking with my tweens.
- The kids club at school finishes at 4pm which is a nightmare for me, but one of the local mums brings them home and they stay at her house till I collect them at 7pm.
- I heard via school of a family going on holiday over half term, so her nanny helped me for a week.
- My mum lives 3 hours away but I ask for her help in the holidays sometimes and she comes to stay. It totally saves me.
- There is a local babysitting agency. I thought they just did evenings but when I called they offer help in the day too.
- I have a friend who works too and we split the week. We join forces to get a nanny for the day, and we do one day at her house, one day at my house with the nanny, then she has a day off work, then I have a day off work. On the 5th day, we book the nanny and toss a coin for which house the nanny works from. She lives up the road so it’s logistically easy and the kids and nanny love it as they all play together.
- If your kids are old enough, any my eldest is 15, send then out to the park for a quiz with some money to get an ice cream or a hot chocolate. I did a quiz with 50 questions asking things such as ‘Spot 3 dog poos’, quite tricky as it turns out which means the poo-pickers-uppers are doing their job (phew!), ‘Find 3 cafes selling cake’ and ‘find 5 sticks in the park, on the ground over 50cm long’. They loved it!
Thanks so much to all the Mums and their WoMo tips. We especially loved the quiz idea, get yours ready for Easter now WoMos!