Summer Travels Planning, Part 2 – Childcare*

Now that my trip to Disneyland Paris is over with, my sights have been firmly fixed on my holiday to the US in August. My VISA has come back approved, hotels are all booked, transport is all booked, all I need now is a suitcase of clothes to deal with summer heat and to book some Broadway tickets, but that may have to wait until Comicon! As this is a holiday that I am able to go on due to winning Travel Supermarket’s Holiday Postcard competition, I have decided to do a dream holiday which is why I’m going to be blogging in depth about it. Plus, there is a LOT of planning going into it. Look out for posts about my day plans, hotels and route plan, all coming soon.

Firstly, one of my main concerns is childcare.

I am incredibly lucky that my mother has offered to have Little Miss stay with her for the 10 days I will be away. That is a long time to be away from her and it is something i’m not thinking about. However, in my mind, this is a one off and I will never be going on holiday without her again. But 10 days is a long time for my mum, who is in her 50s and rarely ever has Little Miss on her own anymore. She also has my nephew for three days a week during the summer as the childminder is closed. That’s a bit of a handful, as my nephew needs a lot of one to one.

So of course, between my sister and I, we have looked into alternative childcare to help my mum out. However, my claim for two year old funding doesn’t begin until September and my sister receives no funding due to both her and her partner working full time, it was going to be at an astronomical cost. This is a subject that has been heavily debated recently, and really the only logical explanation is to rely on extended family support, which is of course something we are lucky to have.

Now we have a spreadsheet, thankfully my mother works in a school, as does my aunt. I have plenty of cousins offering support and even my 80 year old grandparents if we get desperate. My mother is planning activities so Little Miss feels like she is having her very own holiday at my parents. As she spends little quality time alone with my mum since I moved out, I think it’s going to do her the world of good. She’s incredibly clingy when it comes to me and often cries if I even go to the bathroom without her. I’m putting together a box of crafts to do with my mum and my sister is helping my mum scout out some places to go for days away in the car, as this isn’t something LM gets the pleasure of.

Over all, now that it’s arranged, I feel relieved that it’s one thing marked off my to do before I go list! I’m relieved Little Miss is going to spend time with my parents, I won’t always be working from home!

Do you struggle with childcare during the summer holidays?