Dreading those "School's Off" Days

I just received the calender for the upcoming school year from the brat's new principal. There are a lot many boxes [read dates] marked with an X. These are days when school is "off." Apart from the national holidays, the brat will not have to go to school on the following days:

1. The day after Halloween because her principal "does not want to deal with the hyper kids who've eaten up all their Halloween candy." [Right, so now I have to deal with my hyper brat myself]
2. The MTW before Thanksgiving so that "families can make travel plans and leave early to beat the Thanksgiving rush," said her principal.
3. Spring break, which lasts one whole week [this happens the week after my spring break].
4. Every single last Friday of the month during the school year "so teachers can work on becoming better role models."

Other than these "holidays" there are several "early release" days too.

So, what am I supposed to do with the brat on her days off? I have to be at work, and since this is not India, I don't have "casual leave" days. Now that the brat is in regular school, I don't really have a child care center or a babysitter on my payroll either.What do other mothers do with their rugrats on their days off? Probably American born and bred moms have parents or other sundry relatives who can step in and take responsibility when there's no school to contain the tiny monsters during the workday. What do immigrant parents [who have no family here] do? Swap child-care services? You take care of my kid today and I'll take care of yours next week.

Every school district should probably have a huge drop-off zone where parents can send their kids to be baby-sat [is that even a word?] when regular school is off. Either that, or our workplaces should give us the option to bring our kids in with us to work when they are not in school.

On several occasions this school year, I've actually had to take the brat in to "school" [in the US, even colleges and univs are called schools]. No wonder she wakes up every morning and asks me, "Which school are we going to today? Mrs. Fleming's [her class-teacher] or yours?" When I tell her that she is definitely not coming to my school, she goes "Awwww, not fair!" and walks off in a huff.

Looking at next year's calender, that is exactly what I want to do -- pitch a fit and walk off claiming that the school district is not really being fair. Instead I console myself with a sigh and a "Such is life" comment. Life is war, and everything's fair in love and war, I guess.