Home
Log in / Sign Up
    Private Messages   Advanced Search   Rules   New User Guide   FAQ   Advertise   Contact Us  
Forum -> Parenting our children
Why do these 2 weeks exist???
  Previous  1  2  3  4  5  6  Next



Post new topic   Reply to topic View latest: 24h 48h 72h

animeme




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Aug 22 2014, 3:39 pm
By me, almost all the non- backyard camps are hosted in schools. The schools desperately need these few weeks to get the buildings ready for school. They need to paint, do repairs etc. The reason many of those teachers you mention are setting up their classrooms now is that they couldn't beforehand because there were kids in them for camp. Or because the teachers were working as staff in camp.
Back to top

chocolate moose




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Aug 22 2014, 4:37 pm
I also used my vacation time to babysit. They're my kids, my responsibility.
Back to top

sky




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Aug 22 2014, 5:41 pm
Not sure.
I work full time as does my husband. I'm lucky enough to get 17 days off of work after working for my company for close to 10 years. that about covers yomim tovim, not summer vacation, or even winter vacation. I'd love to take 2 weeks off to be with my children but it really isn't an option.
What makes it even more complicated is that the boys and girls schedules are so different. My boys start rosh chodesh, my girls after labor day. Same with the end of the school year. ki
Back to top

flowerpower




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Aug 22 2014, 5:59 pm
For working mothers it is indeed really hard. For sahms, its a different story. I love spending time with them. We use the time to shop for school or yom tov, go to appointments, or go on outings like nice parks or lakes.
Back to top

Barbara




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Aug 22 2014, 6:11 pm
sky wrote:
Not sure.
I work full time as does my husband. I'm lucky enough to get 17 days off of work after working for my company for close to 10 years. that about covers yomim tovim, not summer vacation, or even winter vacation. I'd love to take 2 weeks off to be with my children but it really isn't an option.
What makes it even more complicated is that the boys and girls schedules are so different. My boys start rosh chodesh, my girls after labor day. Same with the end of the school year. ki


There are a total of 13 days of chag -- Rosh Hashanah (2), Yom Kippur (1), Succot/Simchat Torah (4), Pesach (4), Shavuot (2). But , AFAIK, the most that can ever be on weekdays is 11, and most years it is considerably fewer.

I know it's difficult. I only had 15 days for a long time. But even with that, I was usually able to take a week vacation.
Back to top

Ruchel




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Aug 23 2014, 4:46 pm
Yup, and these weeks aren't even when most people go away... I always wonder
Back to top

amother


 

Post Sat, Aug 23 2014, 5:10 pm
What two weeks? Most kids I know have been home two full months.
I'm not complaining, as I have those two months off too. It's been exhausting, but it's great to be able to spend so much time with my kids.

We went on soooo many trips. Not all of them cost money. I am so grateful to have this time with my kids, and would be upset if summer vacation were shortened.

I agree with what Maya said. If you have so many kids so closely spaced that you can't handle them for two weeks, you should rethink your family planning. (barring working moms here for a moment, who can't take off two weeks a year).
I do think my older kids missed out, when they were young I had toddlers and babies and couldn't spend the same quality time with them. My dh would sometimes take them out on trips and I'd stay home with the little ones. It was hectic and they did miss out. But now the little ones are no longer babies, and summer vacation is a pleasure.
Back to top

Twizzlers




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Aug 24 2014, 12:05 am
Working mom here...

I am sending my kids to a camp in between camp this week, which is fine. But while my boys start Sept 2, my daughter doesnt start until the 8th so I have a whole week that I dont know what to do with her.
Of course I love spending time with my kids...but the schools want their tuition you know, and the only way I can afford that is by working.

I dont buy the excuse that the teachers need a vacation. Of all the professions in the world, teachers in frum schools get so much vacation! From erev yom tovs, to chol hamoed, chanuka break, winter break, a week before pesach, various legal holdiays...THAT is your perk for being a teacher! And at the very least, they have more than 2 full months off in the summer. The rest of us working "normal" jobs have to work every single one of those days..or use up precious sick days that we may or may not have.

This issue annoys me every single year...especially since I dont get a tuition break for september when the kids start a week in PLUS I have to pay for a babysitter if I'm lucky enough to even find one.
Back to top

mommy3b2c




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Aug 24 2014, 12:23 am
The schools and day camps are not required to accommodate you. That attitude is so spoiled. What is wrong with watching your own kids for two weeks? I kept my kids home all summer this year. (Obviously, if you work it is very hard, and yet, it is still not the schools resbonsility to baby sit your kids.)
Back to top

saw50st8




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Aug 24 2014, 12:30 am
Maya wrote:
I don't know. If you can't manage to entertain your kids for two weeks out of the year, maybe you should be rethinking your family planning. If you're a working mom and can't afford childcare for these inevitable vacations, apply the same as above.


Its not usually as simple as that.

This winter, my kids had HFM. Not all in one shot - first one was sick, then the next, then a third. It was a total of 3 weeks that I needed my kids out of school. Followed immediately by winter break (1 week long). This was during the winter from hell where my husband had to take off a ton on snow days (I'm required to work no matter what the weather - I'm often needed more in inclement weather).

The way school/camp is structured here is that there is a week between school and camp and then another between camp and school. That makes it easier for us to find childcare.

We also have very flexible jobs that allow us to work from home as necessary and work alternate hours.

I don't understand SAHM who don't want their kids home though.
Back to top

SRS




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Aug 24 2014, 12:36 am
My opinion only, but the 2 weeks will be easier if you have the kids home the entire summer. Basically each time you change gears, kids go into a state of disarray and find themselves having to readjust. So by the time they would be adjusting to a summer at home, they are back in camp. And then when they are at the point they can adjust to being home, they are back in school.

Parents get to experience the worst part of having their kids home when they are moving from environment to environment and are in transition. The best part of summer is when they have settled into the new routine and you can be a bit more on the sidelines.

I'm sympathetic. This was not out best summer by any means.

(Obviously not eveyone can have everyone home for the summer, just pointing out that those weeks are tough)
Back to top

a1mom




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Aug 24 2014, 1:06 am
The schools are not obligated to watch my kids but. If I want to pay tuition I need to work. I work 9-5 and these weeks are a nightmare for me and end up costing a fortune in temporary child care. I wish the schools could set up some kind of reasonable arrangement for working parents and not have crazy schedules the first week like 10-12 the first day with no bussing.
Back to top

ElTam




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Aug 24 2014, 1:14 am
Quote:
There are a total of 13 days of chag -- Rosh Hashanah (2), Yom Kippur (1), Succot/Simchat Torah (4), Pesach (4), Shavuot (2). But , AFAIK, the most that can ever be on weekdays is 11, and most years it is considerably fewer.

I know it's difficult. I only had 15 days for a long time. But even with that, I was usually able to take a week vacation.


I guess no one in your family ever got sick, or you had additional sick days.
Back to top

ElTam




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Aug 24 2014, 1:22 am
How it works in our family (DH and I both work out time the home) is that DH and I use our vacation time to cover this time. But, we don't have enough vacation to cover the chagim, plus the days before and after the chagim that school is also closed (e.g., Sukkos break is 13 days long, and Pesach is 12), plus mid-winter break, plus sick days for ourselves and kids AND take a family vacation for the gap between school and when camp starts, and when camp ends and school starts.

So, we I took a vacation for the week right after summer, and for this week before school starts, my husband took a vacation and went camping (very inexpensive with my ILs and the kids). It's been a very lonely week, but it's the only doable way. B"H the first week of summer, DH could take off a few days with us, so we went away as a family for a few days (also camping, the whole trip with cost us $200 for a family of 5).

But, if are blessed to have kids and also blessed to have a parnassah, these are the challenges you deal with alongside the many blessings. Such is life.
Back to top

miami85




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Aug 24 2014, 1:33 am
Many sleep away camps have to deal with the fact that many schools outside NY start either beginning or mid-August (they also end earlier). NY schools are run around regents schedules and teacher union schedules thus they run later. Thus, sleep-away type camps have to accommodate different schedules.

Within NY, you've got those families who go up-state and need a week to set up and a week to come down and get settled before school.

Many camps are run by mechanchim/mechanchos who need extra parnassa in the summer, and need those weeks to take care of appointments for themselves and families when they were working--or just catch a breather.

When I was a special ed teacher, we got those 3 weeks at the end of August as vacation--Boy did I look forward to it! Now that my son is in CPSE I am a little "annoyed" but I get it why he has that break.

Even if you don't use the entire 2 weeks to go away for vacation, it's still an opportunity to do SOMETHING as a family which in many families doesn't happen during the year.

I get it that it's difficult for you, but many people do appreciate the time--especially if there is a family simcha.

Perhaps there needs to be a movement to get more "family-leave time". now that there are so many families where both parents work.
Back to top

Barbara




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Aug 24 2014, 1:35 am
ElTam wrote:
Quote:
There are a total of 13 days of chag -- Rosh Hashanah (2), Yom Kippur (1), Succot/Simchat Torah (4), Pesach (4), Shavuot (2). But , AFAIK, the most that can ever be on weekdays is 11, and most years it is considerably fewer.

I know it's difficult. I only had 15 days for a long time. But even with that, I was usually able to take a week vacation.


I guess no one in your family ever got sick, or you had additional sick days.


I was responding to someone who said that 17 days of vacation barely covers chagim. Which is untrue.
Back to top

chestnut




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Aug 24 2014, 1:56 am
Barbara wrote:
There are a total of 13 days of chag -- Rosh Hashanah (2), Yom Kippur (1), Succot/Simchat Torah (4), Pesach (4), Shavuot (2). But , AFAIK, the most that can ever be on weekdays is 11, and most years it is considerably fewer.

I know it's difficult. I only had 15 days for a long time. But even with that, I was usually able to take a week vacation.


I'm pretty sure, there were some years when all chagim were on weekdays - a nightmare of every working (outside of jewish institutions/places) parent. add to that pesach/succos chol hamoed, extra days off before each YT and isru chags, 1.5 weeks off before pesach, Purim day (not ot mention shushan purim when kids are home), chanukah and midwinter vacations.

and, btw, these 2 weeks gap is NOT only at the end of summer, but in the beginning as well!!

for the amount of money schools/camps charge, they could really have tighter schedules to accomdate the parents whose work schedules don't follow the yeshivos'
Back to top

chestnut




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Aug 24 2014, 2:01 am
miami85 wrote:

Many camps are run by mechanchim/mechanchos who need extra parnassa in the summer, and need those weeks to take care of appointments for themselves and families when they were working--or just catch a breather.

When I was a special ed teacher, we got those 3 weeks at the end of August as vacation--Boy did I look forward to it!.


with all due respect to mechanchim/yeshiva teachers, and we've had this convo about the long pre-pesach breaks, I believe, but how do ppl working outside the jewish school/camp system take care of THEIR appts or catching THEIR breathers?
Back to top

ora_43




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Aug 24 2014, 3:31 am
Twizzlers wrote:
I dont buy the excuse that the teachers need a vacation. Of all the professions in the world, teachers in frum schools get so much vacation! From erev yom tovs, to chol hamoed, chanuka break, winter break, a week before pesach, various legal holdiays...THAT is your perk for being a teacher!

It sounds like you're contradicting yourself. Like you said, vacation is the perk for being a teacher. What's to "not buy" about that?

Teaching isn't usually very well-paid, even though in most places it requires training and skill and is a fairly intense job. I think parents need to keep in mind that if they take away teachers' vacation in order to save on babysitting costs, they may find themselves paying a whole lot more in order to keep good people in the teaching profession once it's a year-round job.

But I think you're also seriously overestimating how much of that time teachers actually have off. Most teachers I know use a big percent of their "vacation" time working on grading, building/tweaking their course schedule for the next semester, and undergoing professional training.
Back to top

Tablepoetry




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Aug 24 2014, 3:42 am
ora_43 wrote:
It sounds like you're contradicting yourself. Like you said, vacation is the perk for being a teacher. What's to "not buy" about that?

Teaching isn't usually very well-paid, even though in most places it requires training and skill and is a fairly intense job. I think parents need to keep in mind that if they take away teachers' vacation in order to save on babysitting costs, they may find themselves paying a whole lot more in order to keep good people in the teaching profession once it's a year-round job.

But I think you're also seriously overestimating how much of that time teachers actually have off. Most teachers I know use a big percent of their "vacation" time working on grading, building/tweaking their course schedule for the next semester, and undergoing professional training.


This. Many, many teachers I know are willing to accept lower wages in exchange for the huge perk of summer vacation.
If there were no summer vacation, you'd either have to offer much better wages, or deal with the fact that many quality teachers willl find better paying jobs.
Back to top
Page 2 of 6   Previous  1  2  3  4  5  6  Next Recent Topics




Post new topic   Reply to topic    Forum -> Parenting our children

Related Topics Replies Last Post
Baby flips over at 3 weeks
by amother
4 Fri, Mar 08 2024, 11:02 am View last post
This weeks Aha story in Ami Living about Yocheved Gross
by amother
10 Sun, Mar 03 2024, 3:38 pm View last post
DD10 still Nauseous after 6 weeks of mono
by amother
5 Wed, Jan 31 2024, 10:14 pm View last post
I miss Pardes Restaurant- Does anything similar exist?
by amother
1 Wed, Jan 24 2024, 8:04 pm View last post
3 weeks in to Aliyah, miserable
by amother
30 Thu, Jan 04 2024, 8:55 am View last post