As school holidays roll around again, parents across Australia face the familiar challenge of balancing work commitments with the needs and activities of their children – while working from home.
Working from home in the school holidays
According to Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) surveys conducted in April 2022, 46 per cent of all Australian employees now work from home to some degree (and 34 per cent of Australian businesses have teleworking arrangements in place for at least a portion of their workforce).
It’s a shift that has changed the way we live, as well as the way we work, especially during school holidays. Before working from home, the school holiday juggle involved finding care for children while we were working away. Now we’re tasked with finding entertaining school holiday activities so that we can carve out time and space to continue working uninterrupted – in the same space.
Confounding this issue is the post-pandemic 9.6 per cent rise in the cost of living, which has hit working families the hardest. The result is a new approach to sourcing school holiday activities, with families on the hunt for creative ideas that will allow them to earn income without interruptions – and without breaking the bank.
Shifts in the school-age activities industry
WAYS Out Of School Hours care (OOSH) & Outreach Manager Charlotte Bell notes a “key shift” in the way families now choose activities.
“It involves young people being a key part of the holiday activity consultation process. We have primarily observed that young people love to be involved in the consultation process in relation to the activities we offer,” she told The Bursar.
Ways is a community-based NGO offering high school education through an independent, alternative school, and OOSH services for busy families during school holidays.
Principal Dr Terri Said told The Bursar that, “new excursions and destinations are continually developed in consultation with our young people and their parents/caregivers”.
To remain competitive, the organisation’s offering has expanded to include creative and media workshops, scavenger hunts and geocaching.
The smart way to incorporate screens
Another hangover symptom from the pandemic is the amount of time students now spend on screens. Australia’s 24-hour movement guidelines for children and young people aged five to 17 years were introduced in 2018 and they recommend no more than two hours of sedentary recreational screen time per day.
To have any hope of staying within these guidelines, Ms Bell recommends “supporting children in using technology in an attractive and safe way, such as VR experience rooms”.
“With older children, this can support the development of interpersonal relationships and social skills too,” she told The Bursar.
Knowing that there are options out there for families staring down two weeks of extra meal prep, extra washing up, and the pressure of being present while not being fully present is a comfort many parents seek. By working with kids to discern what appeals to them, and getting creative when it comes to embracing technology-based activities, Australian parents and careers might just get some goodness along with the grind in the next couple of weeks.
