Summer holidays: when planning activities do you include weekends or not?

[AnnMumsnet]

Quick question for you - we are going to be doing a thread soon finding out your top tips on filling those school summer holidays and there's a bit of discussion about whether parents see the summer hols as 42 days (ie 6 weeks x 7 days) or 30 days (6 weeks x 5 days).
What do you think?
I know sometimes its not exactly 6 weeks as there are inset days or longer hols for some schools (and that Scotland breaks up around now) but would just love to get your views on whether you count the weekends when planning dreading the summer hols?
cheers, Ann

[RandomNumbers]

ah now, because of my work I plan weekdays with my work (am a CM) and weekends with my children

IYSWIM

That was helpful, wasn't it

[CMOTDibbler]

Not really as weekends dh and I don't work, so don't have to be accounted for in the calculation of how much annual leave we have, how many days of holiday club there are, etc etc

[Snog]

Dreading the holidays? Are you nuts?
The hols are 6 weeks long to be planned ie 6 weeks x 7 days
Childcare plans only relate to the days when both dp and I are working but this varies from week to week during the hols

[thereinmadnesslies]

We count the weekends in a positive way - DH and I cover the child care during the holidays between us, so the weekends end up being the only two days when we can go out as a family. We are planning trips out at least once each weekend and a couple of camping weekends maybe

[Collision]

I plan for the 5 days as I have the boys in that time apart from when we have our summer holiday.

Weekends are different as DH is around and I hope he will take them off my hands for a while.

[ChippyMinton]

I only really do a bit of planning for the days we need childcare, about 10-12 days, and even then we are lucky to be able to be a bit haphazard about it (working from home, child swaps with friends, days with grandparents and other family). Termtime is busy so it's lovely to be able to take each day as it comes.

[IwishIwasmoreorganised]

I think of things that the 3 of us can do on my days off while DH's at work, and things that we can all do together at weekends.

I do think of it as 6 weeks to fill, but need to think of weekends differently to weekdays, for example long bike rides are possible with DH is in tow but not by myself with our dc

[WishingRLwouldFuckOff]

I count weekends but as have shared custody, if I didn't the amount of time I have with ds would be even shorter then it is. :(

[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes]

Weekends are planned in the same way as the rest of the year, school holiday weekdays are planned to ensure that we have enough childcare to cover days we both need to work and so that the children can do any clubs that they particularly want to and so we can see friends and relatives. So I suppose in answer to the question, it's 30 days.

[Shouldacouldawoulda]

I plan activities with other mums and kids on the weekdays while DH is at work, then family time/activities with family friends on weekends, making sure to leave some weekends and weekdays free for chilling. So I guess 42 days is most accurate.

I don't dread the summer hols at all, we struggle to fit everything in. But I am lucky to work term-time only. I also have other people's children when I can, in return for term-time school run help when I'm working.

[gazzalw]

DW plans for both although there is less pressure to keep the children out of mischief when both of us are around the do things with them at the weekends!

[CheeryCherry]

Yes we include weekends as that is when DH can join us on trips out.

[MrsLetch]

We both only work mon - fri, so no I don't count weekends.

Weekends carry on as normal - its only the weekdays that I need to fill / arrange.

[Wordsmith]

Would be interesting to hear how people plan childcare for school age children in the summer hols. Until this year, I used to make a colour coded spreadsheet as to who was having them and where - ie holidays away, me off work, DH off work, round at grandmas, with childminder etc. It was stuck on the fridge and looked very pretty . Luckily I'm now self-employed and work from home so will just have to fit work around them.
As for activities, I never really plan them, they just happen organically somehow!

[flapperghasted]

I love the school holidays, but I guess that's because I don't work during them, so don't have any childcare issues. We plan a holiday away, usually a week, sometimes two, then we have hot spots that we like to hit, ie a list of things that we want to do whilst we're away. As the holiday gets nearer, we firm things up. Usually we have a combination of things to do and they may or may not involve the weekends. There are usually more sleepovers, more impromptu days out and more pyjama days.

DD is now 11, but when she was younger we'd set a list of places we wanted to go, or travel goals, at the beginning of the year and that would very much inform what we planned to do during the 6 weeks.

Holidays are never quite long enough for me and I always run out of time before I run out of things to do.

[Bubby64]

Again, I count the weeks, not the weekends, as both myself and DH are home then, and we tend to do quite a lot of things as a family then. DH's hobby is his american classic car, so TBH, most w/end during summer are taken up with shows of various sorts, often including an overnight camp, which the boys look forward to. As I work part time during the week, they are booked into an activities child care (KC Adventure) for 3 days a week, which keeps them active and interested. Also we have a weeks family holiday. I have several days out vouchers to use, and I am having trouble fitting these in this summer!

[mumah]

I always count the weekends. It is me at home so I try to plan some great fun activities for Sat/Sun so Daddy can feel included in the fun too!

[Elainey1609]

I plan for 5 days and dont count the weekends (as they are normal) as when coming back you always want a day or so to get children back into routine.

Try to organise the weeks activities then family time at weekends, which we attempt to do normally anyway

[Fillybuster]

For DS and DD1 (going into Yr3 and Reception) I see it as 6x5....in other words, I need to resolve the lack of school to keep them occupied whilst I'm working!

DD2's nursery is open all summer long (and I have to pay regardless of whether she's there) so the issue is working out whether we should take her out for a day/week to let her hang out with her siblings or just make use of it.

So far this summer:

DS and DD1 are doing:

2 weeks of camp in their school building (sadly DD finishes at 2pm and DS at 3.15, so lots of to-ing and fro-ing dairly)

1 week of tennis camp //1 week of dance camp

1 week of multi sports camp // 1 week of kids activity camp

Then we might go away somewhere in the UK for a week, but haven't booked anything yet.

And I'm taking the last 10 days of summer hols/beginning of school term off work, and not making any arrangements, to give them some time to decompress/get bored at home and generally chill before term starts.

[lisad123]

I plan activities mainly monday to friday, and leave weekends for family time for camping or full days out.

[FlouncyMcFlouncer]

I've never planned anything, but then I've never needed to organise childcare or take another parent into consideration.