https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Thu, 09 Jul 2026 21:02:44 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-make-the-most-of-your-vacation-days#post-2907455 Fri, 03 Jan 2020 09:39:29 +0000 wrkbrk 2907455@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I don’t have pto (it’s all flex) but we just got the fall progress report from DS school and it said he was absent four times. So I’d personally save 8 sick days for the entire year!! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-make-the-most-of-your-vacation-days#post-2907451 Fri, 03 Jan 2020 08:30:56 +0000 Becky 2907451@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Ajsmommy: I’m not frugal with my sick time since I can carry all of it over into the next year (unlike vacation time), and I only ever use all of it up when I’m on maternity leave. I accrue at a rate of 1 day/8 hours per month. Looking back at last year I used 40 hours (5 days) of sick time. In 2018 I used 7.25 days. I’d estimate 4 days of sick time per year for the kids. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-make-the-most-of-your-vacation-days#post-2907450 Fri, 03 Jan 2020 08:17:25 +0000 Ajsmommy 2907450@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>How many days do you all allot for sick kids days? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-make-the-most-of-your-vacation-days#post-2907449 Fri, 03 Jan 2020 05:46:26 +0000 SugarplumsMom 2907449@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>What we've been doing is splitting DH's vacation days in half so he doesn't take the whole chunk of it straight. It really works for us because he gets to work for a few weeks during summer, then goes on vacation again. It makes our summer seem extra long and because of the break, we feel more energized to go out and do things. If you're able to split the time, I highly recommend it. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-make-the-most-of-your-vacation-days#post-2907446 Thu, 02 Jan 2020 22:36:55 +0000 PurplePumps 2907446@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Can you do flex time at all, work extra some days to take off a day without using a vacation day? Do any appointments/errands over lunch time? And stack trips with long weekends? I've stretched 4 weeks of pto into 6.5 weeks away on vacation that way in the past. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-make-the-most-of-your-vacation-days#post-2907438 Thu, 02 Jan 2020 20:15:43 +0000 JCCovi 2907438@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I’m part time remote so my vacation is pretty flexible, but I have to be pretty on top of my husband’s vacation time. He started a new job last year and he’s back to 15 days and it’s a huge bummer because he was coming from 21. C’est la vie...</p> <p>I start with a quick budget for the whole year. Looks something like this:</p> <p>3- Spring break<br /> 7- New baby<br /> 1-Boys trip<br /> 1- Fall trip<br /> 0-Thanksgiving<br /> 3-Christmas</p> <p>As things come up throughout the year I have to take that day from somewhere if I want to give it somewhere else. He’s lucky in that he can work remote, so for spring break we’ll travel Sat-2 Monday’s hence. He’ll work remote 3 days during spring break week and then take off the Monday we are traveling. </p> <p>Last year Christmas ended up being really light because as things came up we borrowed from there. We also chose to have him work an extra day so we could bank one more day for the new baby. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-make-the-most-of-your-vacation-days#post-2907429 Thu, 02 Jan 2020 16:13:36 +0000 ALV91711 2907429@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>It is hard to make the most of them. I get three weeks and like to save a couple for Christmas and a couple for when my mom comes out. This year she will be out twice. </p> <p>This summer we have two family trips we are trying to figure out to optimize time. Usually I plan on a couple vacation days for sick time as we only get 3 days per year but when I went back from mat leave I negotiated 5 days per year! That will be a help. </p> <p>I like the idea of using days for a self care day or date day. I won't be doing that this year though. </p> <p>If we didn't have two trips planned I like to take an extra day on long weekends if I can. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-make-the-most-of-your-vacation-days#post-2907428 Thu, 02 Jan 2020 16:09:52 +0000 josina 2907428@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I try not to use full days unless I need to, so for doctor/dentist/etc. appointments I make them as late in the day as possible, then skip lunch so I can use that hour as well. (So if I take off at 3 and skip lunch, I'm only using 1 hour PTO instead of 2).</p> <p>I also try to schedule all that stuff for Fridays if possible just to make my weekend 'that' much longer. </p> <p>Even for date days, or 'me' days, I'll use a half day instead of a full day. I really only take a full day if it's for an actual vacation or one of the LO's is sick. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-make-the-most-of-your-vacation-days#post-2907427 Thu, 02 Jan 2020 16:04:03 +0000 graceandjoy 2907427@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I sadly never really have enough! Every time I go on maternity leave, I have to use up all PTO and then I stop accruing so I'm always scraping by for at least the 1st year of baby's life, hogging all PTO for potential sick days. </p> <p>This year was the first year I actually had leftover! DD2 was between 2-3 and it was the year I finally started to build back up my PTO. But then my 5 year old started kindergarten so we were slapped with a lot of extra holidays but I usually only take off when BOTH kids are off. </p> <p>It's going to be an even tighter belt after DS3 is born as I need to take time off when 3 kids don't have school, plus potential sick days for the kids (not so much for myself), since while DH is flexible I can't make him stay home every single time and my mom's also only available so much... </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-make-the-most-of-your-vacation-days#post-2907426 Thu, 02 Jan 2020 15:49:04 +0000 Becky 2907426@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I get a decent amount of vaca (21 days plus 4 personal days, 3 “floating holidays,” and sick time) but I go through it pretty quickly. I start with noting all the childcare needs we will have throughout the entire calendar year and figure out coverage for that since we have a school ager. I then factor in any planned trips, and then see if I can take off for birthdays. Then I look at holidays and figure out how much time I would like to take off around them (ex for Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, and Christmas I like to take extra time off). Then I see if I have any wiggle room to take off extra days during the summer. In terms of taking time off for childcare whenever possible I do it when there’s also something going on (so like in the summer rather than a random day in March), and either try to work from home or get other coverage for those other days. </p> <p>I re-evaluate a few times throughout the year, like when my in-laws and parents plan trips since they watch one of our girls twice a week. The past 3 years I have also tried to roll over all the vacation time I’m allowed to since we were planning on eventually having a third baby (and now I’m pregnant so thank god I did that!).</p> <p>I can now take time off by the hour which is a huge help if I need to get some major errands done, or if I need to get my daughter off the bus because my parents are out of town or something. I’ve already decided I’m using 2 hours to go get a pedicure a few days before my due date with this one. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-make-the-most-of-your-vacation-days#post-2907424 Thu, 02 Jan 2020 15:09:51 +0000 gotkimchi 2907424@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I also try to use days to be by myself, or around holidays. I also sometimes try to use days to back up to my regular days off to give myself a 4day weekend or something like that. But basically you can’t go wrong, not working is the best </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-make-the-most-of-your-vacation-days#post-2907422 Thu, 02 Jan 2020 14:57:51 +0000 Anagram 2907422@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I've been brainstorming how to use my husband's vacation days. We have to use some of them when we have a school holiday for my kids that I don't have off (there are a lot of those days, surprisingly, but I work in a different district and the holidays don't align pretty frequently). </p> <p>He gets 5 weeks off. Let's say 5 days for random school holidays. We like to save 1 week for Christmas-New Years ever year. That leaves us 3 weeks.</p> <p>Theoretically, we'd use 1 week over spring break and 2 separate weeks over the summer. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-make-the-most-of-your-vacation-days#post-2907421 Thu, 02 Jan 2020 14:57:48 +0000 SweetCaroline 2907421@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Can you stagger one day quarterly for just you? Leave the kids in school/daycare, maybe pickup a little early. I usually start at at coffee shop, do Shuttefly for a while, run some errands, get a massage or mani/pedi, one happy mama/wife when I am done!</p> <p>Also, if DH's schedulle allows, consider some date days?</p> <p>Everyone approaches PTO days differently, but mama days off are something I used to do really well and was well worth it. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/how-do-you-make-the-most-of-your-vacation-days#post-2907420 Thu, 02 Jan 2020 14:24:13 +0000 Corduroy 2907420@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>With the new calendar year I'm starting to plan my PTO for 2020 to make sure we can fit in everything we want to do. I'm in a good spot this year since I negotiated extra with a role change a couple months ago but I don't want to squander it. Any tips or tricks? What are you trying to fit in? </p>