Summer holidays - how many days do you “do nothing”?!

[Wingingit11]

As above really.

How many days eg a week do your kids potter around the house without seeing others /doing any proper activity ?

Ds is autistic so needs plenty of down time the summer so we aim to leave the house 2-3 times a week in some sense.

Loads! They should be allowed to relax, get bored and entertain themselves, and then some fun outings dotted in randomly.
The pottering days are the best though

we leave the house every day to go for a walk/bike ride/shopping. But we have long afternoons doing nothing.

Young children here, probably half and half. They stayed in and played in the garden yesterday. This morning they've watched TV, made cards and paper aeroplanes. Currently contemplating where to take them this afternoon.

Have more outing planned for next week. I think downtime is important for ALL of us.

None. I’m working so they are in camp

Most days. We plan trips out too, but majority of the time the kids play in their rooms or potter about the house and garden. I used to love just hanging out at home as a child. Relaxing at home is good for them (and me 😁)

I’m WFH most of the holidays but my dc (2 young adults now and one 11 year old) are doing a good job of scheduling in fun stuff. Twice a week the youngest goes to a football camp, once a week he and mil do something together and then the 2 older siblings tend to take one day each with the younger one. The older 2 have random work days and other than their one day with the youngest they might be in or out.
we have 2 weeks of holiday together at the end of the summer break where we’re going away and I’ve booked a couple of days here and there as has dh to do something with all 3 of them.
As much as it’s good for them to have downtime i won’t have them just sitting about the house all day plugged into their devices which is what the youngest would do if there were no plans. It’s not good for him. A morning or an afternoon is okay but whole days on end staring at a screen isn’t healthy for him.

Loads but my kids are autistic and prefer to be in their home.
We only plan an outing (other than shopping) about once a week.

Not very often at all, when we stay indoors all day by 4 o'clock my children are climbing the walls. I also like being outdoors and active. We don't go out all day every day. This week they have been at a church holiday club 9:30-12 and then I have picked them up with a packed lunch and we have gone for a picnic in the park/library visit/soft play we have annual passes for. Been back home at around 3.

We will have a similar schedule next week. Our area has loads free for kids to do so we make the most of it.

None. DS has complex additional needs so I have at least two or three things planned for every day with back up ideas as contingencies. Friends/family think I’m a control freak but it’s the only way we can survive without meltdowns (from all of us!). It’s not all trips out etc, but plans like bike rides/walks/play in the local river/build a fort/tie dye old T-shirts etc.

Most of them. DH and I can WFH and they really don't want to go to clubs, so the quid pro quo is that they entertain themselves quietly instead. They've done a lot of painting/crochet/mess making (as well as quite a lot of screen time and being on the phone to their friends) so far.

We're going away for two (separate) weeks of the holiday and they'll visit grandparents for a further week, so it's about three weeks interspersed with time doing stuff.

Quite a few! I'm off this week before they're sent to grandparents for a couple of weeks where they'll be busy so not planning much this week. So far we've literally just gone for a walk or to the local park in the mornings, and afternoon has been free. Kids are happy with that but I am fighting the FOMO of thinking I should be doing more with my week off! Plan to do more on the weekends when DH is here too.

lol, we just drive as a family once my and my husband shifts are done and do things every day. No pressure though, I absolutely hate someone putting me on their social calendars and expecting me to commit to see them only when they want. If you want to see us, it is good time all the time. If not, I am out with the kids anyway

this is to say, I just put the trainers on and am out, enjoying the sunshine and every single green tree and every cloud and every historic building and every sandwich and everything

My best memories of childhood are playing at home, time with parents doing nothing much, and beach days.

I can't stand all this regimented scheduling with forced activities people do these days, these kids will grow into adults who can't be on their own being bored.

My best memories of childhood are playing at home, time with parents doing nothing much

Similar. We were left to organise our own entertainment during the holidays.

Parents are working, and that doesn't stop because it's the school holidays, therefore younger children need to be in some form of childcare, which usually involves some kind of sport/summer camp. Surely that's not so hard to grasp.

DS, who is 11, is in his 4th week of school holidays (not UK), and has had one week of doing nothing other than vegging at home (DH worked from home), two weeks of two different sports camps, and this week is in a camp on the university campus where the children of university staff do different activities -- games, bouldering, swimming, archery etc.

DH and I will take annual leave in August, but DS also has another watersports-based camp for one week, too.

I think dc have 2 days with PIL and they will be fairly chilled out. DH has about 4 days with them where they might go out they might not.

The rest of the time we are at work so they are in holiday clubs. Or we are on our family holiday.

@MardaNorton Of course that's an exception, you have to put them in childcare and I bet they have times chilling there too.
So no need to get rude.
I meant parents with the constant activities, same in term time with all the after school stuff.. they never let their kids chill and decompress.

We hardly have anything planned. I'm fortunate enough to teach in the same school as DC. They are happy to chill out in the holidays with the odd park trip or walk etc. They might see some friends.
This is our time to decompress.
It's interesting to read what everyone else does.

@QueefQueen80s I have similar memories too 🙂

Well, I agree with you about endless activities during termtime which mean the entire family is run ragged because parents are dashing about taking different children to distant activities, and some children are eating a snack dinner in the carpark or their homework in the swimming pool spectator area several nights a week because a sibling is doing a sport.

In my experience it is often associated with social insecurity and social climbing -- a kind of anxious lower-middle-class pushiness and FOMO that drives parents to desperately want their children to excel because they worry that they won't cope in the world without it. The same impulse that obsesses about private school.

@MardaNorton Bang on

We get out every day, either camps (for fun, not childcare) or a trip out. My dc enjoy it, I like to check out different events/venues/parks (all over London and short train rides outside, not just local places). If we didn't go out every day in summer all the good weather will be gone. My dc relax after a day out, they're happiest discovering a new playground with cool features or taking a train to the seaside.

We do an activity every day after school too, my dcs love them and I like to see them thrive. I'm not an anxious person nor am I lower-middle class. We do snack dinners on some nights but I try to use school-based clubs when I can, or use after school club to avoid dragging a sibling around.

Do kids not go out to play anymore ? 😳 My oldest grandson plays in the scheme where I am, I always know where he is though.

We’re all just back from a fortnight at a Parkdean resort ( daughter and three grandkids, 3 with learning disabilities) and we’re all exhausted and slightly overwhelmed from the constant activities and noise. Kids have gone to other grandparents for a fortnight to decompress as me and my daughter take a break. I’m so tired my ears are ringing 😁😴