It’s happened… again. That’s right, even though the last school holidays feel like they wrapped up roughly four minutes ago, we’re back in the thick of it.
The fortnightly juggle is one many parents and caregivers (thank you, mum and dad) have long since resigned themselves to, and yet somehow, every single time, the feeling of panic and utter unpreparedness rolls in right on schedule.
Just know you’re not alone.
To prove the point, Mediaweek put out a call to the industry, asking a very simple question: How are you balancing the school holidays?
What follows is a glimpse into how some of the sharpest minds in the industry – the ones who look like they’ve got it all figured out – actually get through it. It’s a rare bit of honesty at a time when working parents are being bombarded from all sides with tips on how to ‘parentmaxx’ while also remembering to fill their own cup (rosé only, thanks).
Krista Walton, NSW Sales Director – Agency, oOh!media
The saying for working parents is usually, ‘the juggle is real’. During school holidays, though? The juggle is relentless.
Two weeks somehow feels like two months when you’re trying to squeeze full-time work around full-time parenting, across multiple kids with completely different interests, friendship groups and social calendars that rival your own.
If you’re lucky enough to head away, it definitely helps. But when most workers get four weeks of annual leave, and kids get thirteen weeks of school holidays, the maths simply doesn’t add up.
Today’s highlight reel included calling both sets of grandparents before 8.30 am with a shameless plea for help on certain days, negotiating with my husband to work from home, and texting two school parents proposing a highly strategic child-swap arrangement (‘I’ll take yours tomorrow if you’ll take mine today’). All before 9 am. Then came a full day of financial year media negotiation meetings.
Now I’ve finally looked at the clock, and I’m wondering how late Flip Out is open, because my next mission is to sprint through the door, collect my smallest tornado and let him bounce every last ounce of school holiday energy out of his system.
Somewhere between spreadsheets, school holiday logistics and trampoline parks, I’m choosing to believe this is what superhero mums look like… even if the cape feels suspiciously like yesterday’s soaking wet trench coat!
Jen Sharpe, Founder and Managing Director, Think HQ
The short answer is that I’m not!
I’ve always struggled with the school holidays, and it’s when the most guilt tends to kick in. Just today, I had my 10-year-old sitting in my office listening to me chat on about something for a couple of hours while she stared into her iPad.
Her 12-year-old sister is just glued to her phone all day. I even took last week off, but now I’m back at work. I feel perpetually guilty that they are just sitting around while I have work to do!
I find it all really stressful.
Matt Cooper, Founder and CEO, Alpha Digital
I’m a solo dad, and I’ve got three kids, five, seven, and nine, who are always full of energy and needing a lot of attention.
I try to compartmentalise my time as much as possible and make sure the kids’ time is as free from work interruptions as possible, but it’s never entirely free.
There are often times I have to jump on a Teams call, make a bank transfer, make a signature on a document that has to go out, and it’s a matter of keeping the kids occupied during those times, minimising their time on screen, and keeping them as entertained as possible whilst juggling work.
But it’s amazing how if I try to sneak a work email on my phone whilst watching TV or just relaxing in a park somewhere and the kids are playing, they can just sense it and they come over and tell me to get off my phone and start batting it away with their hands, which doesn’t happen too often, but when it does, it lets me know that I’ve gotta be present with them and focus on them.
It keeps me on my toes, and I do bounce around, and if I have a particularly busy day where I’ve got three kids and one’s sick and I’m trying to keep them off screens and I’m being called in, pulled in by work in different directions a few times a day, you can feel very frazzled at the end of the day.
It’s definitely not a stress-free existence, but I think the key is just prior planning and preparation.
Kate O’Ryan-Roeder, CEO, Havas Media ANZ
I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with the school holidays, but over the last few years the balance has shifted more firmly towards love.
The love starts with the drive to work. School holidays are the closest thing Sydney has to a traffic miracle. The roads clear, my commute is almost cut in half, and I glide into the office convinced I’ve somehow gained an extra hour in the day.
And I love seeing children pop up around the office during the school break. They arrive clutching books, iPads and toys, usually a little shy and unsure, but by the end of the day they’re chatting with colleagues and acting like they’ve been part of the team for years. They bring a sense of joy, perspective and unpredictability that lifts the whole office.
And I think they love it too. For the lucky few who get an office day, it’s a chance to see where Mum or Dad disappears to after school drop-off, what we actually do all day, and the people we spend our time with. It’s a glimpse into a part of our lives they don’t normally get to see.
The flip side is that, as a mum of two kids in Years 2 and 4, school holidays are a logistical obstacle course. Every day seems to involve a different camp, different drop-off and pick-up times, and a different list of things to pack. Every morning starts with a mental checklist and a silent hope that nobody has forgotten anything important, or turned up dressed for the wrong theme day.
What I love most, though, is that we’re all a lot more honest about it now. There’s less pretending we’ve got everything under control and more sharing, laughing and empathising with each other. Most working parents are balancing their professional roles while simultaneously taking on a second job as scheduler, chauffeur and chief organiser of our small humans, a role that goes into overdrive during the school holidays.
It’s still a juggle, but it’s a shared one. Somehow that makes the forgotten hat, the wrong camp start time and the frantic pick-up dash feel a little less stressful and a lot more human. The reality is that we’re all figuring it out as we go, and there’s something reassuring about knowing we’re on the ride together.
Fiona Ellis-Jones, Head of News and Information, ARN
School holidays are the pits with two working parents.
As a mum of four aged 15 down to four, our survival plan involves nannies, exorbitantly expensive holiday camps, and a full cupboard of snacks.
The older my kids get, the more I’ve realised teenagers need you more. So we try to alternate working from home as much as possible, at least to be under the same roof as them.
These holidays, we’re sending the two little ones north to Grandma as unaccompanied minors … arguably our best parenting hack to date.
Nicolle Stuart, Head of People & Culture, Mamamia
Like school hours, the number of school holidays vs. annual leave is incompatible with our work schedule! Which leaves school holidays a mix of calling in favours with grandparents, swapping kids with friends, forking out for sports camps, and plenty of negotiation and coercion to attend school holiday programs, and, of course, the trusty babysitter and TV.
Merdith Cranmer, Co-founder and Managing Director, Curious Nation
The simple answer is we don’t cope… seriously!
Flexible working is the secret weapon during school holidays, but communication is everything. Keeping your team in the loop at work and your family in the loop at home is key.
And sometimes lowering the bar on what’s possible is totally OK. If everyone is fed, happy, and the important things get done, that’s a win!