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How parents in Spain can balance work and kids during the school holidays

With schools closing for three months every summer in Spain, many working parents struggle to take care of their children whilst working. These tips regarding workers’ rights and available childcare options can come in handy.

Published: 23 June 2023 14:03 CEST
How parents in Spain can balance work and kids during the school holidays
Knowing what to do with their kids during the school summer holidays is an issue for many working parents in Spain. (Photo by Jeff PACHOUD / AFP)

School children in Spain enjoy some of the longest summer breaks in Europe, with roughly 2 and half months to three months off from late June until early or mid September.

This represents a problem for working parents who don’t have family members to take care of their children whilst they continue slogging it out at work during the hot summer. 

Spaniards refer to it as conciliación familiar, work-family balance, or the lack thereof.

Madrid’s regional government recently announced its schools will be open during school holidays throughout the year from 2024 onwards, offering extracurricular activities to kids in Spain’s capital, but other regional governments across the country are yet to address this ongoing issue which affects vulnerable low-income families in particular.

It’s not so much a problem for those who have babies and young children at a nursery in Spain, as these stay open during the summer months, albeit usually with shorter opening hours.

But for parents with kids in primary or secondary school, it can be far harder to find a way for their children to be cared for and entertained while they’re at work. 

So what options are available to them?

Workers’ rights and negotiating power

According to the Workers’ Statute of Spain, parents of children up to 12 years of age can potentially adapt their work hours during the summer period (number of hours and distribution) without their salary being affected. 

This change, brought in by law in 2019 and referred to in Spanish as adaptación y distribución de jornada, can be requested but not necessarily accepted by your company. 

Law firms that have commented on the legislation have said it lacks detail, but what it does do is force the company to negotiate.

It may be more suitable to try to reach an agreement with your boss whereby you work from home during the summer period part-time or full-time so you can care for your kids from home.

If this isn’t possible, for example because your job can only be carried out at your workplace, you may have to resort to the pre-existing option: reducción de jornada laboral (workday reduction).

This agreement again applies to parents with children under the age of 12, and involves shortening your workday by between an eighth (usually one hour in an eight-hour workday) and half (four hours mostly), with the corresponding salary reduction.

Once again, it’s not a given that you will be granted this workday reduction, but the fact that your employer will be able to pay you less and the existence of collective bargaining agreements that stipulate make it more likely than the fully-paid workday reduction.

As a last resort there’s the option of asking for an excedencia, unpaid leave of absence. The company is forced to keep your job position for you for a year.

It’s also worth noting that many companies have what’s called la jornada de verano (summer work day) or jornada intensiva or contínua (intensive or continuous work day).  

This schedule usually runs from June 1st until September 30th, and means employees work continuously from 8am until 3pm with a 15-minute break.

That means workers one or two hours less per day, potentially allowing working parents to get home sooner to take care of their child/children. 

July 2023 update: The Spanish government has given the green light to three new leave of absence schemes to allow people time off work to care for children and other family members during holiday periods, when they’re unwell or for other urgent reasons. This includes an unpaid leave of absence of up to eight weeks a year, which can be taken continuously or discontinuously, full-time or part-time, until the child reaches the age of 8. It is designed, for example, to provide a solution for parents to cope with adaptation periods in nurseries and schools or for periods without classes, namely during the summer or Christmas period.

External childcare options 

Many schools in Spain offer campamentos de verano or summer camps. This means that your kids can carry on going to their normal school, even after the term ends. But instead of doing their lessons, they’ll get to do fun daily activities, crafts and games, as well as a variety of day trips.

Keep in mind that there are themed summer camps across the country, focused on everything from sports and languages to music or even theatre.

If you’re worried about the cost, search for municipal summer camps for children as these are likely to be free and public.

If summer camps or schools are not an option, or you’d prefer for your kids to get more attention or be around the house, hiring a summer nanny or au-pair is also a good choice.

You can read about childcare options during the summer in Spain in the article below.

READ MORE: What childcare options are available during the summer in Spain?

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SPANISH TRADITIONS

Everything you need to know about Mother’s Day in Spain

Here's how and when in May Mother's Day is celebrated in Spain, and why it owes its roots to religion and a Valencian poet.

Published: 3 May 2024 13:37 CEST
Everything you need to know about Mother's Day in Spain

This year, Mother’s Day (El Día de la Madre) is celebrated in Spain on Sunday May 5th. It’s always celebrated on the first Sunday of the month of May.

On this day, young children in Spain give their mothers manualidades (crafts) they’ve made at school as a token of their love.

Husbands and older sons and daughters may buy their wives/mothers a present to say thanks for all that they do as matriarchs, which usually takes the form of a detalle (smaller present than for a birthday or Christmas), and will come accompanied by a message such as te quiero, mamá (I love you, mum).

According to experiences website Aladinia, the average Spaniards spends €65 on gifts on Mother’s Day. 

Other mums may send out text messages to wish each other ¡Feliz Día de la Madre! (Happy Mother’s Day!).

As it’s always celebrated on a Sunday, many shops will be closed but you can expect plenty of restaurants to be open for lunch and perhaps dinner. 

Depending where you’re from, the first Sunday of May may or may not be when you’re used to celebrating Mother’s Day in your home country.

Around the world over 100 countries celebrate Mother’s Day (or Mothering Sunday, more on the difference below) – 77 in May, 13 in March, and 14 at other times during the year.

Some countries, like the UK, celebrate Mothering Sunday on the fourth Sunday during Lent, meaning that the date changes each year. This is because Mothering Sunday was originally a Christian holiday in some European countries.

READ ALSO: How a female teacher campaigned for Spain to have a Father’s Day

Spain, however, celebrates Mother’s Day on the first Sunday in May each year, meaning that it doesn’t have a fixed date either. But it wasn’t always like that.

The history of Mother’s Day in Spain

The first Mother’s Day in Spain was celebrated in Madrid all the way back on October 4th, 1926. Much of the impetus for establishing a day to celebrate mothers came, rather fittingly, from a poet.

Julio Menéndez García, a Valencian poet and public servant, pushed for a special day to celebrate mothers. Spanish newspaper La Libertad published a short section on Garcìa’s efforts in October 1925:

“A Levantine poet, Julio Menéndez García, has had the happy initiative that in Spain and in the Spanish-speaking nations a day should be consecrated to extol the love of mothers. The establishment of Mother’s Day is something tender and sympathetic, which deserves to be welcomed by governments, the press and public opinion, as it involves the highest tribute to women in their most august representation.”

After the Civil War, the church moved the date to December 8th to coincide with the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, a key holiday among Catholics. 

Civil War-era poster urging Madrid mothers to leave the Spanish capital with their children before the arrival of Franco’s troops. (Photo by AFP)

But it wasn’t until 1965 that Mother’s Day was celebrated in May in Spain. The reason for this change of date was to separate the celebrations (both were considered important enough to have their own day) but also the influence of other countries, namely the United States.

The campaign for a Mother’s Day was originally started by Anna Jarvis, an American wanting to honour her mother, in 1908. By 1914, US President Woodrow Wilson officially signed it into law, establishing a May date. 

However, for many years in Spain department store El Corte Inglés maintained the date of 8th December, meaning that Spain Mother’s Day was celebrated twice a year for a while, commercially speaking at least.

In 1936 a local council in Breña Baja, on the Canary island of La Palma, became the first in Spain to move Mother’s Day to May.

However, in 1965 the church authorities officially decided to move Mother’s Day to May, a month consecrated to the Virgin Mary. May is also the month of female gods in the classical world, and in Catholicism is dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

Interestingly, Jarvis herself later campaigned against the day, arguing it had become overly commercialised, something Spaniards often bemoan about other imported American customs like Halloween and Valentine’s Day. 

READ ALSO: How a female teacher campaigned for Spain to have a Father’s Day

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