The holiday season is filled with smells of deserts baking in the oven, warm coffee, cinnamon and vanilla candles, fresh Christmas trees and gingerbread. Stores are filled with happy shoppers trying to find that perfect gift for the special people in their lives. The holiday season is also filled however with children’s holiday performances at school as well as classroom parties. For the single parent it can be difficult to even find the time to do holiday shopping let alone talking your boss into letting you out of work so you can be present at your child’s school events.
There is also the issue of winter break. Two entire weeks off of school is what most school districts feel is appropriate to give the children. It becomes very difficult for parents to juggle the demands and responsibilities of work and caring for out of school children during this time.
Here are a few tips of how you can plan ahead to make this time a little less stressful.
1. Plan your vacation ahead of time – If possible, put in your vacation requests at the beginning of each calendar year when you have the school schedule in front of you. This will help ensure that your childcare is covered throughout the year.
2. Call on Friends and Relatives- The school’s give children over four months off typically in total per school year and most parents do not have that kind of vacation time available. Asking family and/or friends for a hand on these non-school days ahead of time can be helpful so when the time comes you are not scrambling for childcare
3. Camps- Check with your school district and other parents to find local day camps in your neighborhood that your child can participate in during days off school.
All you can do is try your best to plan ahead. The preparation and pre-planning does help. It is no fun to be frantically searching for childcare at the last minute. With a little pre-planning your hectic holiday schedule could be a little smoother and a lot more manageable.