To think children generally enjoy holiday clubs?

Dd always has a great time while she was there and doesn’t want to finish for the day, but often reluctant to actually go in the morning. I am always really jealous when she goes, it’s an amazing holiday club at the outdoor pursuits centre so she spends the day doing archery, air rifle, climbing, crate stacking/raft building, bell boating, kayak, high wires, bushcraft…. I pick her up and she tells me they’ve kayaked down the river to a big park, had a picnic, picked blackberries along the riverbank then toasted cheese sandwiches over a camp fire and made their own hot berry sauce to have with the apples they picked at camp followed by toasted marshmallows.

I will have spent the day staring at a spreadsheet and having conversations with people whose sole purpose in life seems to be to annoy me 😂

Mine enjoyed parts of the summer clubs like sailing week, football week or youth club week but not as much as the brochure!
They did not much like the nursery ran “holiday club” but they didn’t hate it.

In the olden days when I was at school we were all sent to sport schemes at the local secondary as they were free. We went for the whole 6 weeks. I don't think my mum liked spending time with us, she was a teacher and had the whole 6 weeks off but still sent us! I'd much rather have been at home. It was better than us being on the streets though.

My son went to one, he didn't enjoy it even though there was loads of activities. He preferred to be at home I think most kids prefer to be at home but do tolerate clubs. If they are going with friends it's probably different.

Mine kind of enjoys it once she’s there but she’d absolutely rather be at home and is always adamant she doesn’t want to go. Then comes out quite happy and full of stories about what they got up to. There was a dance one she seemed to like better than most but that only ran for a few days over last summer and hasn’t been on since.

We’re doing two days in week 1 and two days in week 2 of these holidays, which isn’t too bad. She’s had a real run of illness lately and I do feel awful because I feel like she needs a proper rest but we don’t have enough leave to cover it all. Obviously there’s the bank holidays this time which helps. My sister is very very kindly going to do a day, she has her grandkids that day too (big age difference so her kids are closer to my age) and there’s still a day I need to figure out yet!

Mine much preferred being at home. Clubs are more for parental convenience than the enjoyment of children.

I am in my 30s and went to a holiday club when I was at primary school and I still have fond memories now. It was far better than days at home being bored.

Mine have never wanted to go but due to work they've had to. One of my DC is off for 18 weeks per year, we only get 5/6 weeks off each. It's a nightmare to juggle it all with no family help tbh.

Mine hate them and would always rather be at home. One does have additional needs and there is no real suitable clubs at all. The ones we gave a go he was very vunerable to being bullied. It was a sport hall type one with older boys there all put together and no one really overseeing them. Thankfully his older brother is really good at looking after him and it was only a a very short 10 till 1 anyway. Not much use for working. It's a pretty poor show of holiday clubs where I am. Not that I can use them anyway.

Surely most kids have to go to them for at least some of the holidays? We only get a certain amount of annual leave and the school holidays are much more even if we never had time off together. I just assumed my kids would go to them once they are school aged. I hope they don’t hate them 🙈

My two didn’t like them

Mine hated them, begged me not to send them this year

Mine liked some but not others. They much preferred going with a friend. I remember as a child being desperate to do some activities in the holidays but my parents couldn't afford it.

Depends on the child and what the club is.

Two children - one preferred the local council one ran out the local sports centre. She was with a few friends and it was a mix of play/ swimming/ art etc but once she hit 9/10 she found them to boring and then she disliked them so was a lot harder. Husband and I mixed wfh and shorter days. I wanted her to do something as watching iPad/tv all day wasn’t a good alternative! The local horse riding school did the odd day which she liked.

My younger daughter loved the more expensive activities, horse club, coding , drama , film club she had a mix of activities and loved it.

It’s tough but we always had the first summer week split between husband and I off so they could decompress. And had the last 10 days of before going back to school in summer. Rest of the term breaks mix of leave and holiday camps.

I don’t miss the planning logistics at all! They much to old for clubs now and haven’t been damaged by them!

Mine hated them. I used have a mainly term time time contract with school holidays as unpaid leave apart from one week in the summer. Even in that week they only had to go to a holiday club two days but always wanted to stay at home.
I suppose if children have wrap around care from the beginning they don't know any different but introducing childcare when they are older is harder.

Mine enjoy the specific activity-based ones - dance, musical theatre, tennis, football, film-making. Often with a performance or project.
Not the playscheme type ones with colouring in and random games.

Mine hate them and they prefer to be home.

The one near us has been going 30+ years and is excellent. Daughter enjoys going and complains if she gets picked up early. I don't particularly like holidays away so try to take Fridays or Mondays off throughout the summer to break things up.

We have to use them but my kids have some they prefer over others. There was a heavy sports one and they weren’t as keen. Not because they don’t like sports but it was more competitive.

The ones mine enjoy are a more unstructured with a few activities. Esp if a few friends are going they spend the day painting, playing etc.

We have a lovely club near us that have a special thing each day such as bouncy castle or petting zoo visit.

That's a shame, ours are run by coaches of term time sports in schools, so they are generally quite experienced. Dd's is also only 9:30-3 so a reasonably short day, which may make a difference.

My dd liked one that was a woodland forest school set up, there was also an outdoor pool which she loved.

It cost £40 a day though.

My 8-year-old loves them. Her favourite is a forest school one. She does get some downtime as well, though.

My kids hate them. They sound amazing in the adverts but they're mostly run by bored, inexperienced teenagers. They do repetitive, low budget activities. They may have a few moments of fun but most of it is just surviving until home time.
The only time my kids possibly enjoy them is when their best friends are at the same one.

My two alway preferred being at home, never much liked being left at a holiday club. Again, as others keep saying it will depend on the child.
Mine are close in age so could always rely on each other for games at home and have always been home birds anyway.

About 25 years ago, my sister's boss was taking his 9 yr old son to football camp over the summer holidays, as they were driving along, he asked his dad, "So when do I get my holiday?"

I have always remembered that, and think about the days when I did nothing as a child, where nothing was organised, and I could choose what I wanted to do, from reading to painting, to playing rounders on the playing field... that was the time when I recharged.