I love half-term, but for all the wrong reasons! Anyone else with me?

[ContessaGoesMarchingDOWNTOHELL]

I LOVE half-term, but people act like I'm a selfish monster when I explain why!

1. The kids spend all day happily bouncing around and going on exciting adventures with their (reasonably priced) holiday club, staffed by long-suffering yet kind childcare professionals with a great sense of humour. They return home exhausted, grubby and happy (the kids....mostly)

2. We avoid having to battle the bored half-term masses at every free activity and save a few pennies not buying entry to overpriced attractions and buying desperately-wanted cheap tat/sugary things

3. I spend the week working, mostly from home, for which my teams are grateful because generally we're short-staffed at this time

4. I get to leave work at my usual time (school hours) and have a happy few hours ponking around the garden every afternoon

5. We get to save up our leave (and money) for the 'big' holidays at Christmas/Easter/summer, and have a few days left over to attend school events during the year

This thread isn't meant to devalue the experiences of those who love having half-term with the kids; I just wanted to extol the virtues of another approach

Anyone else with me?

Mums need a break too. I think it's probably improving your relationship in the long term, because you're less frazzled

I look forward to that approach in future sheila! We are currently trying a day at home and the DC are being quite good, although DS2 is coming up to me every 6 minutes with further instalments from his epic fantasy drama involving a dinosaur and a ceramic cat....

Trying to get a few minutes here, dh worked from home for the first hour so I had a bit of lie in, horrible cold type virus still rumbling. Baby asleep, pre-teen plugged in, dc2 grumbling around the place/semi playing with lego. Will take them out either for a walk or the park this afternoon, I find it breaks the day up a bit and we all feel better for the fresh air. Pre-teen will play lego with dc2 for a bit and fortunately we don't have much of the bickering (dc1 is usually out or tolerates a lot because she is that bit older). We are fortunate in that we have a large garden and there are always a lot of leaves to rake etc so again head out for fresh air. Dc2 is back at school early next week, dc1 still at home but we plan to head out for a couple of days for lunch/shopping etc. it will be lovely to spend some time with her and see a bit of life! I think dc2 thrives on structure (she is asking how many sleeps until school) she is an active child and would really benefit from going out on her bike/swimming etc. all the things she gets to do if my dh has a day off but are tricky for me to do with her right now and I cant help but feel guilt. During the Summer Hols she went to holiday club one day a week and I think this was a great compromise because she was automatically out of the house and socialising with other children, dh also had one day off a week so we were able to go out/more active...this would have been my ideal these holidays given my current circumstances.

Holiday clubs can give DC opportunities for enrichment activities that they either don’t get at school or that they cannot do to the same standard/intensity in a non specialist environment.

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Like what? I can't see who would provide such standard/intensity and how a Holiday club is a specialised environment?

A child who is good at art who doesn't get to do much at school is hardly going to be taught by Picasso in a holiday club. Who would do this for £7.83 ph

We break up today and my two are booked in for three days of holiday club next week. I teach, so have some stuff to do over the half term, but it's mainly that it's a sports club so they can bugger off and spend 9 hours playing tennis (they're both very sporty and active) while I get the miserable stuff done, then we get to have fun a few days, too.

All this drudgery of 'entertain your children at theme parks' every time they have a day off school is madness. I went to Alton Towers three times in my whole life before turning twenty. That's plenty!

It depends, I think, Romany. At the one my kids go to, there are often not many kids at the craft table and so the staff member sitting with them gives them loads of attention and support. I've seen happy little faces creating 'art' in a 3:1 ratio situation loads of times, which I imagine is better than school....

I love it for the lie-ins
Mine have refused the holiday clubs this time around which is a pity as here they run from 7.30-6pm iirc... Good activities and outings too!
So we are chilling at home with the odd exciting foray into town/little walk/cleaning mission/play date... I am so relaxed it's untrue (teacher so off work too).

Contessa

Thank you, I thought the poster was meaning the holiday club was a specialist environment for enrichment, to a high standard, rather than offering support for an activity they may not do at school or with as much support.

I love a half term but no need for holiday clubs

I did get a day out indulging due to a short stay at gps though

All sounds reasonable except I would always pick the kids up as early as I could but that’s just me.
I work part time and also have a decent amount of holidays. I had to send the DC to holiday clubs sometimes as we all wanted school holidays off but I still felt guilty about holiday club, always took as much time off work as I could and always picked them up as soon as I finished work. Admittedly some days were better than others but children grow up so fast.

I’m on mat leave with a month old baby so I decided to send DS1 to holiday club for 2 days this week to give me time to do, well, nothing really! He absolutely loved it as he got to see his buddies and I loved it as I got to chill out a bit...win win!

Romany - at the holiday clubs my DC attend the lure is the fact that they are taught by professionals from the arts and sporting worlds who are just a million light years away in quality from most of their school teachers (who have other considerations). Plus much better ratios.

My DC spent most of 5 weeks at holiday club in the summer. They were utterly fed up. I imagine 1 week would have been ok though.

I do think lazing around at home, parks etc gives them a much needed break from routine.

I can't wait to hang out with them for a week. We are so ready for some fun.