Six Weeks of Summer

In recent months, the increasing cost of childcare in the UK has been a hotly-debated and the subject of significant media attention. Parents around the country are being put under financial strain as a result, forcing many to take time off work or enlist the help of grandparents or other relatives to look after their children, particularly during the school holidays.

With the summer holidays soon to be upon us, Cotton Traders carried out a survey in order to find out where and how children around the UK will be looked after during this six week period. 2000 parents with children between the ages of 0 and 18 were asked a series of questions on the matter, providing some interesting and varied responses..

• The majority of respondents (44.10%) said their children would be spending the most of their summer holidays at home with non/part-time working parents and 24% said they would be at home with full time working parents on annual leave.

• The main reason for children spending the summer holidays with working or non-working parents is due to convenience (23%) and money (21%) Sadly, only 20% said this was due to gaining quality family time. 

• The majority of respondents (37%) said they wouldn’t be budgeting for the summer holidays as they couldn’t afford to.

• Of those parents taking annual leave to look after children, 28% said they were having to take separate holiday weeks to their partner.

• According to the results, the average age that parents think a child can be left unsupervised during the school holidays is 13 years old. (about year 9 at school)

• More families will be taking holidays in the UK (35%) this year than abroad (34%) and of those 23% who said they wouldn’t be or weren’t sure whether they would be taking a family holiday this year, a whopping 66% said it was because it was too expensive.
• Interestingly, 11% of respondents said they wouldn’t be taking a family holiday this year as it is too expensive.

To read more visit the Cotton Traders Thread.

*Survery results provided by Cotton Traders