Taking the summer off as a working mom

[Anonymous]

Would love to spend more time with my child this summer. It will be his last summer before starting preschool and it feels like the last of his young toddler days. Has anyone taken 4-8 weeks off in the summer before as a working parent? I have enough rolled over vacation time but have never taken that much time off at once before. Did you enjoy it? How did it go?

[Anonymous]

You won’t regret doing this. Start planning now and get your leave request in. Even with that amount of accrued leave many companies have policies about the amount of vacation time you can consecutively take off.

[Anonymous]

What is his regular routine? Are you pulling him from daycare? Firing the nanny?

Are you sure you're cut out for it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You won’t regret doing this. Start planning now and get your leave request in. Even with that amount of accrued leave many companies have policies about the amount of vacation time you can consecutively take off.

This. You'll want to look into whether you can take it off consecutively. I have seen people take off two weeks, come back for two weeks, and then take off another two weeks. So that might be an option if you can't take off four weeks consecutively.

[Anonymous]

I have done this for many summers. For the toddler years, I enjoyed working 3-4 days in summer then having Fridays and sometimes Mondays off. I've enjoyed it even more as my kids have gotten older, having a bunch of weeks off in summer. When work has been too busy, I only took off for trips, but the best summers have been when I've saved up enough time to take off weeks at a time when we're not going anywhere. Then we really get to enjoy DC. museums, folk life festival, Kennedy center millennium stage free concerts, other park concerts, ball games, etc. And then just a bunch of days at the pool. I had to make a deal with my boss last summer to work a couple hours each night and some of weekends so we wouldn't lose progress on a project and it was still worth it to have daytimes flexible. Also not bad to work in the hottest part of the day so kids has l can have downtime, too, even when post naps.

If you're an extrovert or have extrovert kids, I highly recommend finding out other families who have a similar schedule or flexibility. It can be hard as they kids get older and all the neighbors kids are in camps.

[Anonymous]

Honestly it will depend on our work environment. I’m in the corporate environment and was judged for having a baby, let alone 2. I took 4 months with each and DH took 4 months with each. He was praised (“what a super dad”). I was judged (“mommy tracking her career” and “she’ll never return to full capacity”). Expect this!

That said - you will literally never get this time back with your child!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is his regular routine? Are you pulling him from daycare? Firing the nanny?

Are you sure you're cut out for it?

Umm - she’s not joining the Marines. I think she’ll be fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is his regular routine? Are you pulling him from daycare? Firing the nanny?

Are you sure you're cut out for it?

Umm - she’s not joining the Marines. I think she’ll be fine.

np here
Yeah, but pp raises a good point about what happens with his current care situation. You can expect the nanny or current daycare spot to just go without a summer of work/pay. OP will either still need to pay the full amount all summer, or make sure she has something else lined up for fall.

[Anonymous]

^CAN'T expect the nanny...sorry.

[Anonymous]

Given that OP specifically says the summer I think it’s reasonable to assume the kid is school age and this would be an alternative to camp. OP, if you do this can you report back how it goes with work? I would absolutely love to do this with my elementary aged kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Given that OP specifically says the summer I think it’s reasonable to assume the kid is school age and this would be an alternative to camp. OP, if you do this can you report back how it goes with work? I would absolutely love to do this with my elementary aged kids.

Given that OP specifically stated in her OP that this is her child's last summer before preschool and that it's the last of his young toddler days I think it's reasonable to assume the kid is much younger than school age and "camp" in it's traditional sense is not an option.

[Anonymous]

You may need some of those days off for illnesses once he starts preschool and is in the Petrie dish of germs. But otherwise definitely go for taking off a big chunk of time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Given that OP specifically says the summer I think it’s reasonable to assume the kid is school age and this would be an alternative to camp. OP, if you do this can you report back how it goes with work? I would absolutely love to do this with my elementary aged kids.

Given that OP specifically stated in her OP that this is her child's last summer before preschool and that it's the last of his young toddler days I think it's reasonable to assume the kid is much younger than school age and "camp" in it's traditional sense is not an option.

+1. Childcare is definitely a consideration here, unless you are moving them to a new situation anyway in the Fall. Some kids this age do not transition well to different care situations. After being at home all summer with a child this age, I would anticipate a potentially rocky start to pre-school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly it will depend on our work environment. I’m in the corporate environment and was judged for having a baby, let alone 2. I took 4 months with each and DH took 4 months with each. He was praised (“what a super dad”). I was judged (“mommy tracking her career” and “she’ll never return to full capacity”). Expect this!

That said - you will literally never get this time back with your child!

I am so sorry you work in such a toxic environment.

I am also in the corporate environment and have gotten nothing but support, encouragement, and understanding from my colleagues and supervisors/higher ups, with a solid plan to ramp up when I return after my combined FMLA/personal leave of absence 5 month leave.

Anyway OP, enjoy. Time spent with kids is always time well-spent.

[Anonymous]

Op here. I work part time so I am already his primary caregiver 2 days of the week. On the other days, we have older relative who comes for a few hours a day while I work. So it wouldn’t be a huge adjustment for him and the relative is more than welcome to keep coming while I take time off too.