(English translation available after the Chinese article)

踏入7月，小孩的暑假快到了。
小孩很期待暑假的來臨，
不用上學，多了玩樂時間。
但對父母來說，
尤其是雙職父母，
悠長的暑假簡直是一場惡夢。

孩子不用上學，那麼日間孩子百無聊賴在家做甚麼？
會不會整天在玩遊戲機？
整天躺在睡牀上？

有些父母依靠學校全日班服務照顧孩子，
暑假時學校未必開放，
那麼誰來照顧孩子？
父母可能要急忙請家人朋友幫忙看顧孩子，
但又未必順利。

有些父母希望能安排暑期活動給孩子，
讓孩子有一個充實的暑假，
但應該選擇哪些活動呢？
誰人負責接送呢？

父母在暑假或學校長假期前總會感到頭痛，
有甚麼好方法能好好計劃暑假，
令孩子不會虛度光陰，
同時又不會太影響父母的工作呢？

1. 與其他父母輪流照顧孩子

大部分在職父母不可能在整個暑假請有薪年假陪伴孩子，
一來有薪年假可能只有十多天，
而孩子暑假最少都一個月。
二來業務需要，公司未必批准一次過放那麼多假期。

如果有差不多背景的父母朋友，
能互相幫忙照顧孩子就好辦了。
每個家庭的父母輪流請假數天，
放假的父母負責照顧全部家庭的孩子，
設計一些活動，
室內或戶外活動都可。

孩子每數天到不同家庭玩樂，
不用悶在家裡，
又可以與其他孩子保持社交，
父母又不用因為未能陪伴孩子整個暑假而感到內疚，
可以好好考慮呢！

2. 及早與上司商討暑假的工作安排

有些公司實施家庭友善政策，
願意配合僱員照顧家庭的需要，
實行彈性工作安排。

暑假前及早與上司商量，
告訴對方在暑假時育兒的困難，
看看公司能否容許你在暑假期間彈性上班，
例如一星期數天在家工作，
彈性調整上班時段，
甚至縮減工作時數，
按比例支付薪金，
甚至申請無薪假等。

這樣可以在不用失去工作的情況下，
兼顧育兒，
陪伴孩子，
直至暑假結束，
就可以重返正常的工作安排。

在考慮彈性工作安排時，
上司最顧慮的是公司的運作會否受影響，
你的工作效率能否保持平常的水準。
因此要想想怎樣說服上司，
自己在彈性工作安排下，
還能保持工作效率。

3. 帶孩子上班

除了彈性上班安排，
帶孩子一起上班是不是另一個可行的選擇？

假若你沒有聘請外傭，
聘用的保姆臨時不能上班，
長輩未能幫忙，
找不到朋友幫忙，
又不能獨留兒童在家，怎辦好？

試試跟上司商量，
能否帶孩子一起上班，
但要預早計劃孩子在公司的活動，
帶備足夠的玩具、圖書、教材，
甚至零食。

帶孩子上班會為你帶來很多麻煩，
孩子可能會要求你整天陪伴玩耍，
令你不能專心工作。
孩子也可能無故鬧脾氣，
大聲吵鬧，
騷擾同事工作。
當你需要開會時，
不知安排孩子在哪兒。

另一方面，帶孩子一起上班，
不但能解決沒人照顧孩子的問題，
而且孩子能夠親身參觀父母的公司，
觀察父母工作時的樣子，
不失為一個給孩子擴闊眼界的機會呢！

4. 暑期課程

相信家長都會預早替孩子安排暑期課程，
但你知道甚麼機構提供暑期活動嗎？

香港有不少非牟利機構會為小童提供暑期興趣班和活動，
包括小童群益會、香港青年協會、基督教家庭服務中心、香港基督教女青年會、基督教靈實協會等，
這些機構提供的興趣班和活動費用較便宜，
所以吸引了很多家庭報名。
有些機構會安排抽籤，
大家要預先看看各個機構的報名詳情，
預早安排孩子的暑期活動。
市面上也有不少私人教育機構提供暑期活動，
有各式各樣選擇。

接送安排也需預早計劃，
建議家長把暑假每天的行程，
包括上下課時間、興趣班名稱、上課地點、需帶備的物品等，
寫在月曆上，
讓照顧者清楚知道每天應該帶孩子何時和哪裡上課，
不然替孩子報了不同機構的課程，
不同日子不同時間上下課，
可能會造成混亂，
帶了孩子到錯誤的地方上課就很尷尬了！

希望暑假就算不是家長的美夢，
也不會是場惡夢，
好好與孩子享受親子時間吧！

資料來源：
Surviving The Summer Holidays-Tips For Working Parents
How working parents can manage school holidays
How are working parents managing the school holiday juggle?

本文章所發表的全部內容均屬個人意見，並不代表Little Monkey之言論及立場。

關於作者
思嘉是一個在職媽媽，兒子約四歲，很明白在職爸媽面對的挑戰，希望能透過文字，跟各位爸媽分享有關為人父母的課題，互相支持和勉勵。

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Scarlesson
網頁：https://www.scarlesson.com/

[ENGLISH TRANSLATION]

Summer Holiday is a Child’s Dream but a Nightmare for Parents?

Entering July, summer holiday is almost here for the kids. Kids are especially eager about the coming summer holiday where they do not have to attend school and have more time to play. However, to the parents, especially working parents, long summer holiday is a nightmare.

Kids do not need to go to school so what do they do all day long at home?
Would they play video games all day or lay on the bed all day?

Some parents rely on the school’s full day class to occupy their kids but school may not be open during summer holiday so who will take care of the kids?
Parents may be rushing to get family and friends to help watch the kids but this might not work well.

Some parents hope to arrange some activities for their kids to let kids take advantage of the summer holiday, but what types of activities should they choose? Who will be responsible to take them to and from this activity?

Parents will feel the headache right before a summer holiday or long holiday for this reason. What methods are there to help plan summer holiday so that kids will not waste their time while also not affecting the parent’s work?

1. Take Turn Watching the Kids with Other Parents

Majority of working parents cannot take annual leave to spend time with their kid as firstly, they only have about 10+ days of annual leave and the kid’s summer holidays at a minimum are usually a month long. Secondly, because of business reasons, companies may not approve so many annual leaves to be taken all at once.

If there are parent friends of similar background that are willing to take care of each other’s kids then that would work. Each family’s parents will take turns taking annual leave and be responsible to take care of all the children from all the other families planning either indoor or outdoor activities.

The children get to visit other families and not have to be stuck at home. They can also be social with each other while the parents do not have to feel guilty during the summer holidays in not being able to spend time with their kids. This is an option to consider.

2. Discuss summer holiday arrangement with your management early

Some companies have family friendly policy and are willing to accommodate an employee’s need to take care of family and implement flexible working arrangements.

Discuss in advance with your managers about the difficulty in parenting during the summer holidays and see if the company can let you have flexible work arrangements. For example, working from home a couple days a week, having flexible working hours, reducing the number of working hours and paid salary proportionately, or even to apply for unpaid leave.

This way, without losing your job, you can take care of the kid and spend time with the kid until the end of the summer holiday and then can go back to normal working arrangement.

When considering flexible working arrangements, management’s biggest concern is whether the company’s operation would be affected and would you be able to keep your standard of work. Therefore, you have to think about how to persuade your manager that you can maintain that standard under a flexible working arrangement.

3. Bring Kids to Work

Other than flexible working arrangements , bringing your kid to work is another option to consider?

If you do not have a domestic helper, or the nanny you hired cannot come to work, or the elders cannot help, and you cannot find friends to help, then what can you do if you cannot leave the kids at home alone?

Try discussing with your manager if you can bring your kid to work but first plan and arrange for activities for them to do while at work along with bringing toys, books, learning materials, and snacks.

Bringing kids to work will bring you a lot of issues as the kids might insist you to spend the whole day playing with them and causing you to not be able to focus at work. Kids can also have temper tantrums and disturb your colleagues by being loud. And you need to arrange where to put the kid if you have meetings to attend.

But on the other hand, bringing a kid to work not only solve the issue of no one taking care of the kid, the kid can also visit their parent’s workplace and see what their parents do as it is an opportunity for them to broaden their horizons.

4. Summer Course

Trust parents will arrange their kid’s summer courses in advance but do you know which organizations have summer activities?

There are many non-profit organizations in Hong Kong that offer summer interest classes and activities including The Boys’ & Girls’ Club Association of Hong Kong, The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups, Christian Family Service Centre, Hong Kong Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA), Haven of Hope Christian Service, etc. The interest classes and activities offered by these organizations are cheaper so they attract many families to sign up. Some organizations will arrange a lottery so you have to research each organization’s different registration methods to arrange the kid’s summer activities in advance. There are also many private educational organizations that offer many different types of options for summer activities.

Pick-ups and drop-offs are also needed to be planned in the beginning with parents recommended to take each day’s schedule, including class time, name of the class, address and needed supplies, to be written on a calendar so that the caretaker can clearly see when and which class to take the kids to. With different dates and different times going to classes at different organizations can cause confusion and would be embarrassing to take the kids to the wrong class.

Even though summer holiday may not be a dream to parents, let’s hope it’s not a nightmare either so take advantage of this parent child bonding time!

Source：
Surviving The Summer Holidays-Tips For Working Parents
How working parents can manage school holidays
How are working parents managing the school holiday juggle?

All the contents published in this article are personal opinions and do not represent the opinions and views of Little Monkey Hong Kong.

About the Author
Scarlett is a working mom with a 4-year-old son, who knows the challenges encountered by working parents. She would like to share some thoughts on parenthood that may serve as support and encouragement for moms and dads.

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Scarlesson
Website：https://www.scarlesson.com/