When it comes to school holidays, we're not being fair on parents or kids

Australia Broadcast Center

11-07-2025

My seven-year-old daughter was very happy on the night of Friday, July 4. School holidays had begun.
And yet this week I've walked her to school most mornings, at the usual time, for school holiday care.
Why? Both her parents need to work, and there's no other help.
So it's the same wake-up time for my daughter, the same push to eat breakfast and put the "day clothes" on, and the same rush out the door.
It turns out this is quite a common experience.
"I think parents are doing their best and a lot of parents know that their kids need a rest, and I myself try to mix it up," UNSW Associate Professor Jane Kohlhoff says.
Kohlhoff is a psychologist and has three kids, aged five, nine and 11.
"I have got one at home with me here," she says.
"But the reality is they can't stay home for two full weeks, because I've got to keep working and my husband's got to keep working, and we do have to find activities for them."
Yep, it turns out school holidays have turned into a bit of a slog for many Australians.
The reality is that "school holidays" are not what they used to be.
A Sydney University study published in April this year said, "Australian primary school children spend their school holidays in a variety of formal and informal care arrangements."
The Department of Social Services defines this as "a private arrangement between the parent and another party, where there is no change to any form of legal responsibility."
Both arrangements, it seems, come with challenges in 2025.
At home, for example, guardians are working hard to entertain the kids when, in the past, they have largely been left to entertain themselves.
"Kids used to have a bit more free rein to ... roam the neighbourhood and play with kids in the street," Kohlhoff says.
She says parents now feel nervous about allowing that as it feels less safe.
"I think it's also a change in society that parents are wanting to be more involved with their kids [but maybe that's at the] expense of giving kids freedom and helping kids learn to be able to ... feel bored sometimes, find their own fun, be creative, entertain themselves," Kohlhoff says.
As a parent I know how hard it is to usher my daughter away from a screen and into a good book when I'm at home with her. Playing with your kids is crucial, but they also need to be able to entertain themselves without the need for a wireless device.
This isn't a minor problem.
In a 2023 study, University of South Australia researchers found that when primary school children are on holidays and not in formal care, they're less active, more likely to be on screens, and tend to have a worse diet than during the school term.
"Assessing responses for 358 primary school students (grade 4 and 5), researchers found that on holidays, children were likely to be 12 minutes less active each day, 27 minutes more sedentary, and have more than an hour extra of screen time," the paper said.
"During the school holidays, children (aged 9-10) spent 39 per cent more time using screens than during the school year."
Researcher Dr Amanda Watson says children exercise less and eat more unhealthy food during the holidays, which may contribute to accelerated weight gain and poor health.
"Everyone is excited when school holidays come around — it's a break from the daily routine, classrooms, and getting ready on time — but despite the obvious benefits, it can have some setback for kids," Watson says.
And for those kids in "formal" care, there is no break from the daily routine.
"I think it would be fantastic if kids got two full weeks off every 10 weeks," Kohlhoff says. "They have got to relax, rejuvenate.
"But the reality is that times have changed from when we were young and parents have got to keep working because of the economy."
Do you see the problem here? School holidays now, ironically, are not providing any respite for many families.
ANU demographer Liz Allen knows these pressures well. She juggles looking after her kids and working from home in the holidays.
"A lot of this doesn't come down to choice," Allen says. "A lot of this comes down to the economic necessity to work, to earn money and to survive.
"Quite frankly, we need to come together and be gentler on parents and our on ourselves to be able to do this juggle."
Researchers make the point that families face an economic and societal stress point as school holidays approach.
"And let's be super clear here," Allen says. "We've got more and more families with either dual incomes or lone parent circumstances which prohibit the ability to take leave every time a school holiday comes up.
"So, we have this issue where parents simply do not have sufficient time of leave to spend with their children to recharge themselves, so holiday time isn't holiday time."
Many families face the school holidays without any support at all. Some grandparents choose to continue working or simply prefer not to be involved with their children's children. And ex-pats, of course, don't have access to their parents either.
The Australian Institute of Family Studies wrote in a 2016 paper that "living away from extended family, or living in areas with more limited care options such as in regional areas also proved challenging for some."
"Overall, many parents expressed a wish for improved access to flexible childcare, especially for care to match variable shifts and non-standard work hours."
It's clear many families face feelings of distress, not just stress, as school holidays approach.
Allen says the challenge for families is magnified by big business that knows there's money to be made on kids.
"So whether it be age, whether it be gender, we just don't have the ... available hands on deck like we used to even a generation ago," she says.
It's a big reason why more families are relying on formalised out of school holiday programs. "This industry is a booming business, and sadly there tends to be very few places, particularly beyond the city limits, for kids in subsidised arrangements," Allen says.
"So increasingly we're seeing parents turn to more expensive programmes, incurring higher ... fees and so on, to just juggle the holiday period."
As a dad I know amazing things can happen when kids have a moment, just a moment, to stop, relax, and ponder.
It's the basis for creative thinking, connecting with themselves, and their environment.
Where can they find the space in 2025 to do this?
We're not being fair on ourselves or our kids.