Semesterferien and why they can be a nightmare for working parents

So, a couple of weeks ago, our kindergarten casually asked us if we would need care for this random February week.

I’ve been here for a long time, so I had heard of the Semesterferien that kids have. But I never really paid attention to it.

What exactly are the Semesterferien?

It’s difficult to explain because the week isn’t tied to any particular holiday. It’s not like on Thursday there is, I don’t know, Fasching (carnival) or Easter, and then they just take that opportunity to give more time off. No. It’s just some winter holidays that fall right in the middle of the school year, and kids get those days off.

Families take a vacation. It’s a whole thing.

It’s not a bank holiday, but the country still changes

This is the part that can sneak up on you if you don’t have school-aged kids. It’s not a public holiday. You will be expected to go to work, but you might not even notice this Ferien exists until one crazy Monday when the city is absolutely different.

All your colleagues are out on vacation. Your commute is full of traffic if you take some of the main highways, or full of disruption if you take public transport in, especially in the big cities to the east. Those cities also feel oddly empty. The western cities, or the southern places closer to the Alps and the skiing towns, are packed, packed, packed.

It’s this one-week break that falls around early to mid-February. The exact dates vary by province because it falls right at the end of the first semester of school. Schoolchildren aged 6 to 18 are off (parents, generally, are not).

Why is it such a big deal?

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It’s winter. It’s ski week. Children take ski courses. Families visit grandparents in the countryside. If you didn’t grow up here, it can be hard to grasp how collective it is until you experience it. And it’s not just the school system, either. It spills over.

Which brings me back to my original shock: why did my kindergarten, which is for kids up to six years old, ask me if I really needed childcare that week?

It’s all the spilling over. Everyone just takes off – really, everyone, including the kindergarten teachers.

Austrians take their traditions, especially the ones that mark the different seasons, very seriously. I’ve spoken about this before. I actually like that, and I think it helps people survive winter and survive the seasons.

But it’s also absolutely insane if you are a working parent.

It’s even more challenging as an immigrant working parent

If you are a family with two working parents, and especially if you are a family with two immigrant working parents with no support system in Austria, this week can be really, really hard.

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It’s part of a calendar filled with school breaks. There’s this week in February. There’s another break at the end of the year. And then there are no fewer than nine weeks of summer vacations. The system sort of assumes a certain kind of flexibility, or a certain kind of network (I mean, grandparents). If you don’t have that here, you feel it (and even the locals are starting to feel it).

There are options, especially in bigger cities. There are camps, holiday care, and all sorts of programmes, but the less expensive ones are usually booked out.

Some schools also offer special hours and care, but I’ve heard from many working mothers that there is pressure not to use them. In my kid’s kindergarten, we received a message from the director saying that it is important that “children and employees receive sufficient leave”. I’ve had friends who felt they were being made ashamed of working, of having to work.

This is one of those things that quietly disadvantages immigrants. You don’t have the grandparents or a whole system here. So something that feels like a cosy national tradition is a logistical wall for us.

How to prepare for the Semesterferien?

You need to know your holidays and school breaks way ahead of time.

If you want to go all Austrian and don’t have grandparents living in Salzburg, Carinthia, or somewhere equally stunning, be prepared to spend money. Possibly on a skiing trip, because that’s what a lot of families do.

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Or be prepared to build your own version of this week: day trips, little adventures, winter walks, anything that makes it feel like a holiday for the kid, even if you are still working in the background.

If you’re in Vienna, you can always go to Semmering, which is like the Alps of the Viennese, as they say.

And be prepared for empty cities: if you think you might go to the doctor, plan around that week; some shops may even close. Treat it like summer holidays. That’s the level of “event” it is.

We usually travel to my home country around February anyway. From next year on, I will plan to be away from Austria precisely during that week, getting my parents’ help with my kid while I work from home.

So, let me ask you: what do you do during the Semesterferien?

Do you have childcare hacks that actually work? Do you do camps, or do you avoid them? Do you take leave, or split it with your partner?

Do you “import” grandparents from your home country for a week? (I know people who do!) How do you deal with what feels like more than ten weeks of school holidays, when most of us only get a few weeks of leave per year?