Just wondering... In the US you don't automatically have holiday days taken care of by law, so then what on earth do you do when your kids have holiday from school and summer break, which is longer. Who do you resolve that?

Even over here that is problematic as kids have a school holiday every 8 weeks and you cannot cover that with days off, even though we get 23-28 days off a year, by law. The amount does depend on working full-time or part-time.

But if you don't have holidays/days off cos of the system, how the heck do you do that when you have kids??

Thankfully I never had that problem as I took my daughter to work with me during school holidays and I know that not everyone can. I gave her small jobs to do and paid her haha. Just extra pocket money really.

I guess that's where grandparents come in handy. My friends had their kids enrolled in summer clubs and others found childminders. It's quite expensive and kinda defeats the purpose of working for a living because they were actually only working to pay for their kids to be occupied and looked after.

Yes it is very expensive to get a baby sitter! Daycare centers aren't cheap either.
But some single mothers have to work to make a living, and not everyone will have parents willing or able to take care of their kids or nearby enough.

I worked for a while when my youngest went to kindergarten. Only during school hours, but then I still needed a sitter as I had to leave before the kids went to school. Plus no more lunch at home with mommy -and also having to pay to have them stay at school. The petrol cost to drive to work and so on...
My husband got taxed differently cos of my income, and after we did income tax it turned out I'd worked for nothing. Plus my kids had suffered because of it, lots of stress cos mommy wasn't there anymore, causing them to get ill, which gave me stress for having to leave them behind.

Now I had a choice as my hubby was breadwinner, but some women don't have that option.

Have you been to a Mall?
No one.

On the other side of the coin, my brother's wife was a childminder and during school holidays she was raking in the money. The kids she had before and after school were with her full time at holiday times.

One of my friends moved to Scotland from England and her husband was from Wales so they didn't have any family to help out. She had to organise summer clubs for her 2 boys. She eventually went part time which helped her situation.

Yes, I agree, very difficult for single parents and I'm just grateful that I was never in that position.

I've been there for a few years after my divorce. Then my kids were 9 and 11, but still not an age where you can leave them to their own devices.
Now I could work part-time as I made enough that way (Teaching) and my ex helped out with rent and child alimony.
I gave my cell phone (the 1st one ever, hihi) to my eldest as I couldn't always be home on time to pick them up from school, plus there was always a chance of something going wrong in traffic or my car.
Then at least I could contact them, made me feel better.

What I hated and still feel guilty about is that I couldn't take my own son to secondary school the first time. He was really nervous as he had to go by bus and he'd never ever done that.
My then partner went with him that first day as I myself had to go to work to teach. It still feels wrong, even though my son is 28 now. One of them things you will feel guilty about till the end, hihi. Stupid as I couldn't help it. Teaching is not work where you can take a day or half a day off...

Mine are 42 and 43 so I let them play out on their own

I would keep an eye out though... you never know!

My oldest "little one", will be 29 soon.

Since becoming a parent, i haven't gone anywhere
on holiday, that i couldn't drag my spawn with me.

We didn't do that until the kids were older either.
But that was not what I was asking about, haha

Nobody had to look after my heathen.
'Cept, while i was at work.

i dont have any kids and i dont want any

I work midnights, so daycare around me is an issue, but I have friends and family I can trust.

That is helpful!

The weather has been warm but I caught my little monkeys out without their vests on