The Echidna: We need more annual leave for the school-holiday juggle

Hi folks, I'm taking over from Steve Evans who just installed a gender-neutral loo in the burrow - just like the loos humans have in houses. And just before he left, he did a beautiful job of cleaning it.

Now, speaking of household responsibilities ...

School kids in Australia get about 12 weeks' holiday a year. Believe me, their teachers need it.

But I'll tell you who else needs longer holidays urgently - anyone who is currently a parent of a kid or kids aged between five and, say, 16. And anyone who is currently a parent of anyone aged between five and 18, who has a spouse and wants to stay spoused.

You will either be in the middle of the wild juggle (NSW, ACT, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, Northern Territory) or just have finished (Queensland, Victoria) - and it is one of the most tense-making parts of family life. How will you manage the kids?

Here is our problem. The regulation amount of annual leave on average in Australia is 20 days. Even the UK does better, says Sara Charlesworth, RMIT professor emerita.

"Who would have thought the UK would do better than us - I think we do have to look at upping the quantum of leave but there is absolutely no talk industrially about doing that," she says.

Annual leave, according to the ACTU, was last increased under the Whitlam government and has not changed since then. Before 1935, there was no formal entitlement. By 1945, unions had successfully pushed for two weeks of annual leave in industry-level awards - and to four weeks by the mid '70s. In 2009, entitlement to four weeks' annual leave was included in legislation for the first time - forming part of the National Employment Standards in the Fair Work Act.

Believe me, I appreciate the push to work from home, the push for flexibility - but working is working and no amount of flexibility fixes the fact that the kids need something more than a screen to occupy them.

Our school kids get 60 days. And there is no real affordable way to close the gap. Yes, one parent takes 20 days and another parents takes 20 days and then we have 20 days where we have to pay for care. And who is the single biggest provider of out-of-school care? Yep, it's the for-profit sector, adding to an already stretched family budget. Some of the comments in the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's childcare inquiry released this month are heartbreaking.

"Vacation care is often booked-out one minute after bookings open, forcing me to take time off when it is not ideal for my workplace."

And, "The lack of available places for after-school care (among other issues facing parents trying to access childcare) is causing a generational divide between working parents in the workplace."

So here's my idea. We all need pay rises, yes we do. Wage growth is sluggish despite the fact that company profits are soaring.

The then senior economist at the Centre for Future Work, Alison Pennington, told me in 2021 that the profit share of national income skyrocketed in 2020. She said profits grew seven times faster than wages. She also said the share of income going to wages is at an all-time low, at least since the '60s when the data began to be collected. Cost-of-living pressures are deranging.

So, while companies are keen to keep cost-of-staff in check, I have a modest proposal. While we wait for bosses to become generous (don't hold your breath), I propose we ask for longer paid annual leave, say an extra week per worker. This would at least ensure that all school holidays were more or less covered in two-parent households - and in canny households where there might be some back-up (hello awesome grandparent army); it will then be possible to have a holiday as a family. This would still suck for single-parent households but it would suck slightly less.

It's hard enough to juggle everything when we are all occupied and busy. But when we add in the fact that kids would love to have fun on holidays, it makes managing a 60-day holiday on 20 days of leave per parent even tougher.

HAVE YOUR SAY: How do you manage school holidays? Would you like more annual leave? Or - forget that - do you just need a pay rise urgently? Email your response to echidna@theechidna.com.au.

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

THEY SAID IT: "Whichever way we roll the dice, we're juggling a lot and it's no wonder our brains feel like they have too many tabs open." - Jenna Kutcher.

YOU SAID IT: I've got my own ideas about toilet queues but right on, Tim Walker!

Tim said: "Huge queues for women's toilets at concerts and other public events lead me to regard gender-neutral facilities as the way of the future. However, men's laziness and indifference is an issue with gender-neutral toilets. Over 50 per cent of users need the seat down, but I reckon the vast majority of males who use the toilet as a urinal leave the seat up. Courtesy means the next user should find it in the down position!

Alan sounds ever-so-slightly-jealous of his wife's talents... He writes: "My observation on toilet etiquette is that blokes never ever talk to strangers, except for maybe a cursory nod or grunt. Based on my wife's experience though, she never seems to visit a crowded loo at a social event with the inevitable queue without making at least one friend for life!"

Todd has this advice for those using urinals: "What about 'pants down' at the urinal? In my view, there is nothing more disturbing than taking the blind corner into the men's and being met by the bare arse of one of your colleagues. It is an experience that is hard to forget."

And Stephanie writes: "Having spent time on both sides due to being born half-boy half-girl and being wrongfully surgically modified to be a boy when I was born, I feel well qualified to comment here.

"The first thing I want to say is that not having to visit men's toilets is worth all the trials and tribulations that transitioning presented. I could never understand why there is usually a pool of urine on the floor around the urinal? Seriously I never had a problem hitting the hole in my 50 years of being a boy and I certainly didn't have much to aim with (all part of being hermaphrodite!). Maybe men should concentrate on their aim rather than conversation?

"Female toilets on the contrary are much more pleasant places to be and I regularly speak with other users even if it's just to say 'hello' and a smile while washing my hands!"