School holidays can be a parents biggest nightmare. Even if you are in a two parent home. What should be perfect family bonding time is often a time of great stress for parents. When you are single, all those stresses multiply. You cant play tag team with anyone in terms of taking leave. Its just you. You have to make a plan for those days. Even in a two parent home you arent able to take leave every time its school holidays. Companies do not offer that amount of leave. So what you are left to do is once again walk the tightrope that is parenting while juggling balls in the air that is reality.

Now that I am single my only option is to keep them in holiday care. This in itself takes planning because now that Cameron is in Gr 1, the holiday care is an extra R30 per day. So I need to make sure I budget for it.

I am not able to take them away each holiday, so we plan for one holiday per year. This year it is in October. So it leaves me with 3 other holidays to plan and budget for.

While I am sure that spending time with their friends is fun for them, I do feel sometimes like they are missing out on being able to stay at home.

My mom was a teacher so she was at home with us every holiday. We also only did one major holiday a year but the rest of the holidays my brother and I were at home or at play dates with friends. I, unfortunately, am not able to provide my children with that.

Their father has taken them away a few times over the last three years but it is not a regular, consistent thing so we cant rely on that. It is up to me to provide them with holiday memories. And for now, at least, those memories will be made at Holiday care.

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