I totally agree with Jane Williams's article about the scarcity of holiday childcare for school-aged children.
My daughter has just finished her school holidays, and despite being told several weeks ago that the local school holiday club was going to run, lack of numbers meant that, at short notice, the holiday programme had to be cancelled. My parents live about 35 miles away and can usually be relied on for a couple of days' childcare, but this year they were away themselves for the entire Easter holidays.
I therefore had to take time off work myself, and ask favours of three other mums locally, all of whom took my daughter for a day. Luckily she is no trouble, so they are normally quite happy to look after her, but I can't always rely on this method of childcare.
As I have recently been made redundant from my part-time job as a Marketing Manager, my newly self-employed status made it easier to take time off this year. If I had still been working this would have eaten into my four weeks' annual leave, and by the October holidays I would have been completely stuck.
Surely there should be government funding for school holiday clubs, or all these women who went back to work after having their babies will be forced to leave when their children reach their first school holidays.
What do other mums think?
Julie Mitchell-Mehta
Email mandy@workingmums.co.uk with your views and experiences.
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