I would like to put something out there because this has become an ongoing issue, yet very few people are willing to speak about it publicly. And unfortunately, there is a real fear that if someone does raise these concerns in a public forum, there may be consequences that no parent wants to face—especially when it comes to the school their children attend.

For years, many parents have been kvetching and raising concerns about the amount of vacations, breaks, half-days, and days off that our children have throughout the school year. Unfortunately, the parents who work extremely hard to make ends meet and pay full tuition are often the ones who feel the greatest impact.

I am not a Rav or a Rebbi, and I certainly don’t claim to have all the answers. But I do think it is fair to ask some questions.

We speak constantly about the importance of chinuch and the values we are trying to instill in our children. Yet, on practically every legal holiday, we have a half-day of school. What message are we sending when school ends at noon? For many working parents, that doesn’t mean half a day of work—it means dropping the children off, turning around, and then having to arrange another pickup and carpool a few hours later.

And then there are the vacations surrounding Yom Tov.

Rabbeim and Morahs work incredibly hard day in and day out, and Baruch Hashem, over the past several years, schools have made significant efforts to improve their salaries and compensation. They deserve to be compensated fairly for the important work they do.

But why have the vacations before and after Yom Tov become so extensive?

Are working parents not making Yom Tov? Don’t we also have homes to clean, a sukkah to put up, Pesach preparations to do, meals to prepare, and countless other responsibilities? Why does so much of the burden seem to fall on the parents?

This isn’t about blaming teachers or criticizing our schools. It is about asking whether the system as a whole has become unbalanced.

And now, it seems to be trickling down even further.

What started with yeshivas is increasingly becoming the norm in playgroups for children as young as a year and a half to four years old. I honestly cannot understand how it has become acceptable for a playgroup to have no school on Fridays, every legal holiday off, Yom Tov breaks, mid-winter vacation, Chanukah vacation, and additional days throughout the year.

At some point, we have to ask: Where does this end?

Parents want to give their children an appropriate chinuch. We want to support our schools, our teachers, and our communities. We want our children to have the best education possible.

But parents also have jobs, businesses, mortgages, bills, responsibilities, and families to take care of. We cannot simply continue adding days off and assume that the parents will somehow figure it out.

And perhaps the biggest problem is that there is no real forum where parents feel comfortable raising these concerns without worrying about retaliation or consequences for their children.

This is an age-old issue, and I know I am certainly not the first parent to feel this way. I also know there are many sides to the discussion.

But I hope that one day we can have an honest, respectful conversation about this as a community—without fear, without attacking anyone, and with the understanding that the goal is not to take anything away from our children’s chinuch.

The goal is to find a balance that works for everyone: our children, our teachers, our schools, and the parents who work tirelessly to make it all possible.

Name withheld upon request

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