Child goes on Tet holiday early, mother 'depressed' looking for a place to send him

Mr. Hoang Ngo sent one of his wife as a gift, one of her will follow her mother to the company, while Mr. Phuong La had to "mobilize" his wife to go to Ho Chi Minh City.

“For the past week, I have been worried and had a headache because I could not find a place to leave my child near Tet,” Ms. Hoang Ngoc - 32 years old, living in Ha Dong district, Hanoi - shared with Tri Thuc - Znews.

In Hanoi, from January 26, all preschool and primary school children in Hanoi will start the Lunar New Year holiday. However, at some private schools - where Ms. Ngoc's child studies - children will have an early holiday. While the child is excited about this holiday, the couple is running around looking for a place to send the child.

Anxious when children have early Tet holiday

Ms. Ngoc said that every year, the Tet holiday of her two children coincides with her parents' holiday, and the whole family will return to their hometown on December 26. But a week ago, the private elementary school announced that the older child would be off for the end of the first semester and would be off for Tet from January 18. Meanwhile, although the school is not off until January 26, the kindergarten where the second child attends also announced that the children will have two days off in the middle of the week.

Many families face difficulties when their children are on Tet holiday while their parents are still working. (Photo: Pexels).

“I went from being surprised to worried because my child was on leave but my parents still had to go to work. At the end of the year, my husband and I had run out of leave and had a lot of work so we couldn’t stay home to look after our child,” Ngoc said.

Ngoc and her husband came up with many options, such as sending the child to a private school, finding a babysitter, or sending the child to a teacher's home, but none of them worked. The teachers all refused because they were busy with meetings and wanted to prepare for Tet for the family. Meanwhile, the three private kindergartens around the house also refused because the parents only sent the child for a week. Besides, the older child was already in elementary school, so it was not suitable.

“I also don’t feel comfortable letting strangers come to my house to look after my children. Partly because the services come from social networking groups, partly because the cost is too high, estimated at about 3.2 million VND for 8 days with 2 children,” the mother shared.

Similarly, the child is not due for Tet holiday until January 23, but since January 15, Ms. Phuong Le (HCMC) and her husband have “mobilized” the grandmother from Buon Ma Thuot to HCMC to take care of the child. During the days leading up to Tet, Ms. Le and her husband have to work overtime until midnight, and the child is in elementary school so they have to ask the grandmother to take care of him.

Another reason why Ms. Le and her husband had to rely on her grandmother was that the maid also asked for an early Tet holiday. In other years, the maid would stay and work until around the 27th of Tet, but this year, Ms. Le's maid asked for a leave from the 20th of December, so she could not help with childcare.

It is expected that on January 23, when students in Ho Chi Minh City are on vacation, Ms. Le will ask her grandmother to take her grandchild back to Buon Ma Thuot first. Her family wants her child to return to her hometown early, so that the grandmother and grandchild can take care of each other more comfortably, and the child will also have different experiences than in the city.

“If my child had to leave school early during Tet, we would have a headache. Luckily, my grandmother is at home so we feel more secure and don’t have to hire someone to take care of our child, which is both expensive and insecure,” Ms. Le shared.

Ms. Ngoc considered all options but still could not find a place to take her children during Tet. (Photo: NVCC).

Should unify Tet holiday schedule

The 2025 Lunar New Year holiday schedule for students will be based on the school year schedule of each locality. Many provinces and cities such as Hanoi, Hai Duong, Binh Duong, etc. will give students 9 days off, coinciding with the Tet holiday schedule for workers.

Sharing with Tri Thuc - Znews, Ms. Tieu Thi Trang, owner of Binh Minh independent kindergarten (Ha Dong district, Hanoi), said that in contrast to previous years, this year, her facility has not had any parents register to send their children outside of the schedule.

The teacher said that the uniform holiday schedule for workers and students in Hanoi has created convenience for parents. Parents also get to leave earlier than usual, so they have more time with their children.

However, in other localities that let children have longer breaks such as Ho Chi Minh City (11 days), Kon Tum (17 days), Quang Ninh (14 days), Ha Tinh (11 days)... or private schools that let children leave early, parents leave after January 25, child care during these days is the top concern of many parents like Ms. Ngoc and Ms. Le.

Ms. Hoai Linh, a kindergarten teacher in Ha Tinh, said that even though it was not yet the holiday, some parents had already “booked” her to babysit for the days before Tet. The cost of babysitting each day was 150,000 VND (including 50,000 VND for meals). Although it was expensive, parents still accepted it because they had no choice but to send their children.

Where Ms. Linh works, parents are mostly in business, so Tet is the busiest time of the year. Many families are so busy that they forget to pick up their children, and teachers have to take turns looking after them until late at night. Ms. Linh once had to take a child home to help take care of because the parents were busy going to import goods and no one was home to pick up and take care of the child.

Meanwhile, with no other choice, Ngoc and her husband decided to take their second child back to their hometown this weekend and ask for help from their grandparents because it was close to Tet and they could not go to Hanoi.

She called her parents to arrange their work and clean the house first so they could help her look after the children. Meanwhile, she would bring the older child to the company because her grandparents were old and could not look after both children.

However, she is also worried because "taking the child to work for one day is fine, but for 5-6 days, work will definitely be affected", because the mother cannot concentrate on work, has to worry about feeding the child, playing with the child, and keeping an eye on the child. Not to mention that even if the mother reminds her, she cannot avoid the child running around, playing with things, affecting her colleagues.

“My child’s daily routine is also erratic because I only have 1.5 hours to rest at noon. It will be difficult for my child to keep up, it will be quite affected,” the mother said.

For the above reasons, Ms. Ngoc thinks that instead of a long break before Tet, schools can change to a break of 2-3 days after Tet. At this time, companies are also opening spring and there is not much work, parents have more time, children will be able to comfortably play with grandparents or go on spring trips.

Ms. Phuong Le also agrees with this point of view. Even though her grandmother takes care of her grandchild, she still feels inconvenienced when her child and her parents' Tet holiday schedules are not in sync. If the child is off too early, it will be difficult for the parents to divide their time to take care of the child.

The mother personally still hopes that localities will let her children have a break before Tet, which coincides with their parents' schedule. After Tet, the children can have a longer break, with the parents going to work first, leaving the children in the countryside with their grandparents, and then returning to school. Ms. Le believes that this option will help families "breathe easier" and ensure that the children have a comfortable Tet holiday.

(Source: ZNews)

Link: https://lifestyle.znews.vn/con-nho-nghi-tet-som-me-meo-mat-tim-noi-gui-tre-post1525664.html

Source: https://vtcnews.vn/con-nghi-tet-som-me-meo-mat-tim-noi-gui-ar921423.html