should colleagues with kids get preference for holidays?

Brighton_belle

BobQ wrote: »

There are many posts along these lines. Its not about the parents! Its about the children. Children deserve the opportunity to spend as much time as possible with their parents and those of us who have more flexibility should be reasonable and allow them to do so.

What about where both parents work so they can afford a house bigger than they actually need, several expensive holiday abroad a year and a brand new car every other year, designer gear etc. Could that not be seen as the parents chosing material goods over precious time with their children?

But as a general principle those without children should not be so selfish as to insist on first come first serve or equal opportunities. This is a little harsh, have you not read the thread and seen legit examples of why a childless peson might need to have time off during holidays too?

Personally, I have over the last 10 years always worked all school holidays so my colleagues with school age children can share out the hols between them. They have been very appreciative of this.
But I have been lucky to be able to fit my own time off needs comfortably around this (and we close down for xmas week), but not every one can all the time.
To be told I had to always be second [STRIKE]class[/STRIKE] in terms of my needs would be horrible if I longed to get a bit of family time sharing childcare of my nephew/neices during school hols. The extended family can be a wonderful asset to a childs life.

jellyhead

(sorry, this should have been in reply to posts about not knowing when half term is)

You could try the LEA website for your area, but there could be a week or so's difference in England for many of the holidays, and I think Scotland has their summer holiday a lot earlier than ours - so whenever you book you may meet with lots of schoolkids.

Miss_Ratty

Sorry, but having children is a choice, and one that shouldn't mean others have to take their holidays to fit around your desire to have time off whenever. I think schools should be a little more flexible regarding holidays - I was taken on holiday out of school, and I turned out fine, it didn't stop me getting a degree anyway. I totally understand that parents do have caring responsibilities, but so do many child free people as well.

BobQ

Brighton_belle wrote: »

Originally Posted by BobQ
There are many posts along these lines. Its not about the parents! Its about the children. Children deserve the opportunity to spend as much time as possible with their parents and those of us who have more flexibility should be reasonable and allow them to do so.

What about where both parents work so they can afford a house bigger than they actually need, several expensive holiday abroad a year and a brand new car every other year, designer gear etc. Could that not be seen as the parents chosing material goods over precious time with their children?

But as a general principle those without children should not be so selfish as to insist on first come first serve or equal opportunities. This is a little harsh, have you not read the thread and seen legit examples of why a childless peson might need to have time off during holidays too?



.

I really do not see the relevance of your point about both parents working. The children are the ones on holiday and I think that they deserve the maximum opportunity to spend time with their parents. Whether this is in a luxury house or a modest home or on an expensive foreign holiday or holidaying at home is irrelevant. Ideally couples would earn enough that they did not both have to work but life is not that fair and in reality double income is needed to raise children with the many costs involved.

I did not say that those with children should be the only ones given priority during the school holidays. As I stated in my post, if someone without children has a particular need for time off in the school holidays then they too should be considered on a fair basis.

The thread contains many posts along the lines: " you choose to have children so its your problem" or "first one to apply gets the time off" or "parents should be treated like everyone else". Those without children often have the opportunity to take their leave outside of the school holidays. I am just saying its selfish to take the view that when you have a choice you will chose to make it more difficult for parents to take their holidays in the school holidays just because you can.

loracan1

Why would any sane person who can take their holidays whenever, want to take them during the school holidays?

Brighton_belle

BobQ wrote: »

I did not say that those with children should be the only ones given priority during the school holidays. As I stated in my post, if someone without children has a particular need for time off in the school holidays then they too should be considered on a fair basis.
OK, fair enough, I hadn't picked that up from your post. Fair do's. It imagine it could be quite difficult /way too persaonl though to explain to your colleagues - 'I'm really lonely and am very sad i wasn't able to have kids and need this time with my family to balance my life better for example: that would be too personal for many to have to make public in order to qualify for being considered for leave.
The thread contains many posts along the lines: " you choose to have children so its your problem" or "first one to apply gets the time off" or "parents should be treated like everyone else". Those without children often have the opportunity to take their leave outside of the school holidays. I am just saying its selfish to take the view that when you have a choice you will chose to make it more difficult for parents to take their holidays in the school holidays just because you can.
I do agree with you here. I do think parenting is hard work and to deliberately make it more difficult vis vis hols would be just plain mean. BUt I'm not sure many childless would be deliberately trying to make life more difficult for parents. Xmas is one example - it can be a very lonely time to be exluded from family life if you are single and childess. I don't agree with the 'your choice, your problem attitude'. I do think more kindness all round for everyone is the best.

The point I was clumsily trying to make re both parents working when they didn't actually need to ( and I totally accept many do need to) other than to afford luxuiries way beyond my pocket, for example, is that I didn't think it was such a fair argument in that case to claim it was therefore a childless persons responsibilty to give up their needs so parents could have a wealthy livestyle way beyond needs and then complain they didn't get quality time with their kids.

Edwardia

Why should a single person without kids who can't afford to go skiing for example give up time off to a mother or father with a working partner and therefore two incomes to take the brats abroad ?

Spendless

I would find it completely bizarre to decide who has an annual leave requested based on parental status. There would have to be a different tie-breaker rule in place if two people with kids wanted the same week/s or two people without wanted the same week/s, so why not just make that the rule of thumb anyway?

F_Bear

Why would any sane person who can take their holidays whenever, want to take them during the school holidays?

its about choice, theres been many example stated on the thread why "sane" people would like time off during "school" holidays.

skintandscared_2

In my team, I am the only one without children. I would rather eat my own foot than take my holidays during school holidays. Why would I choose to pay two or three times the price, and be surrounded by kids?! :rotfl: So it works pretty well for us. The only exception is Christmas, where it's done on a strict rotation. If I was in the office last year, I get first pick of time off this year.