What did YOU do during the summer holidays?

[halloween41]

I’ve seen threads about summer holidays and about entertaining children etc. When I was a child (only child), I was expected to play with my toys and watch tv with very occasional visits to my similar aged cousin (maybe twice). Apart from that, I was just expected to tag along food shopping or go to church as usual. From about 12+, I arranged my own schedule unless there was something specific planned, which in fairness my mum gave me money to do ie if it was the cinema or swimming or whatever. We never did days out to the zoo or farm or beach or theme parks or anything (I’m 27 so it’s not like this was a long time ago). We could’ve financially, but my family had no interest. It’s a very different summer holidays to what my kids have, which is days out to zoos/farms/soft play/beach etc but we don’t usually holiday in the summer, we had ours in April and last year it was February. I’d say on average, we have two ‘days out’ a week during the summer plus other days going to the park. What did YOU do in the summer holidays as a child/teen? How is it different to what your DC have?

Mum got a job at the swimming pool, which meant we didn't have to pay, and spent a lot of time up there. Once I was 16, I was the one working at the swimming pool.

@DorothyStorm that has brought back a memory- I used to spend hours making perfume from rose petals with my neighbour (same age).

We also used to try and dig to Australia! 🤣

We're always on our bikes racing around the block (not as many cars in the 80s!) or playing 123 Block Home.

Also used to go to summer camp for a week where we built dens using sticks and bracken.

One week with my grandparents in the country. Otherwise a mix of childminders, council run play schemes, plus whatever time off my mum could scrape together. We generally did one bus day trip each summer, to a zoo or similar (no car). Sometimes mum snuck us into her work and we hid in the filing room, behind the stacks. Her immediate boss knew but not the big bosses!

And once we were old enough to not need childminders we could stay home with dad popping home for his lunch to check on me without having to explicitly say they worried. I was allowed to walk into town to the library if it was agreed in advance, or we could go to the park, so long as everyone knew where everyone else was supposed to be.

We didn't go on family holidays although during the summer my mum and Dad made an effort to make the weekends more fun and we'd go out to eat or they'd take us places (normally to different play parks etc) or do BBQs. We mostly just got up to low grade mischief - we played chappy (knock on the door and run away), one year we dug an absolutely massive hole in the garden that took weeks, we went swimming, tried to build a fort, watched loads of telly, made prank calls, created dance routines....just played basically. It sounds boring written down but I don't remember being bored! As many pps have said, we definitely had the money to do lots of activities but we never did and I never felt like I was missing out. Once I was older I did used to go to Scripture Union camps for a week over the summer holidays and sometimes also a weekend over the Easter holidays too.

We'd go back to Italy to visit relatives, usually on the channel tunnel then a long drive through France. We'd have a couple of days out like hiking or going to the lake and the rest of the time we would hang out with our cousins at the 'oratorio' (cheap church run holiday club).

When I got older (teens) I'd do a bit of English tutoring or helping out in my aunties restaurant.

I'm over 60 so the only screen was the telly in those days. There was some daytime kids tv for school aged kids but it was about 40 mins on the BBC - I remember Tin Tin, Tom and Jerry, Laurel and Hardy and Abbot and Costello.

I'm not an only child but my only sibling was halfway into grammar school by the time I started school. So effectively an only and not playing out with me. We always got on well though.

We usually had a family holiday sometime in the summer hols. A week by the sea or in the Lake District - always uk. Dad would have time off for days out - seaside trip, London, Zoo, National Trust property or shopping trip to a different town. Mum was partially sighted, so didn't drive but we would go on the bus to places and shop. When I was out of infants and into juniors we'd visit family who all lived pretty far away. I'd stay a bit longer with my aunt and she and my cousins would take me to their caravan in Wales. I loved that..

At home there were lots of local kids and we'd play out together, visit each others houses. Shops, cowboys and Indians (we had a teepee) camping (we had a triangle tent that was my bro's) showjumping with space hoppers (good but Dad a bit miffed about grass wearing out)

Local authority had a summer activity scheme with bus service. I went drama club, that was really good.

With Mum I did baking and watched Emerdale Farm and Crown Court 🤣

At primary I went to a child minders every day other than a 2 week summer holiday (usually a caravan in Wales or France Eurocamp). Secondary I roamed the streets all day / watched tv or movies. I would spend up to 4 weeks on holiday tho - 2 weeks with dad, 2 weeks with mum. Dad holidays tended to be Orlando or Wales. Mum holidays were Wales/Cornwall with some of her friends and kids or Benidorm/Majorca with large family groups. I definitely remember alot of long sunny days left to my own devices, can only assume my parents had no idea where I was 🤷‍♀️

1 week would be a holiday and one would be visiting relatives in Scotland then the rest of the time was mostly just playing out from probably age about 6/7 or playing at home with my sister or friend across the road. Sometimes my Mum would take us to something like swimming pool or a bigger park. But also this is just my memories and my Mum might say something different! She worked and my Dad (teacher) would have been home with us on holidays until they broke up towards end of primary. So from then I’d spend some time at his obviously. But at home I don’t remember doing anything with my Dad when he looked after us for those summers! I do remember first summer when they broke up I went to a childminders for at least some of the summer holidays

We'd always go to my grans for at least a week. That sounds much better than it was. Gran loved the idea of us coming but 5 extra people in a 2 bed when she was used to being on her own wore her patience down by about day 2-3. We were normally pressganged by Dad into helping her harvest her veg garden (carrots, potatoes and lots and lots and lots of runner beans to last all year) Dad normally organised a day out for one of the days. Gran did not appreciate that. We had the day she refused to get out of the car when we arrived at the place, the time she announced on the way back "I wish I hadn't come"...
It normally seemed to coincide with the hottest week of the summer which wasn't helpful either. Dm got sunstroke one year.

Then we went to our holiday place for a fortnight. Always the same place and most of the time we spent on the beach because it was free, which I loved, but my siblings didn't. And sometimes we went for a walk, which I hated and my siblings didn't. That normally coincided with the news story of the year. At least I remember being on the beach when my parents got the whiff of something big happening and Df was dispatched to get a paper (20 minutes walk to the car, then about 10 minutes drive to the shop) for them to see. I remember learning about the coup against Gorbachev and Iraq's invasion of Kuwait as my parents poured over the paper.

Other than that:
Played tennis (a lot)
Read
Sewed
Played with whatever we had
Made things
Visited my other grandparents (who lived near) especially when other relatives were round

We'd have occasional days out, normally nowhere that needed paying, so the local beach featured quite heavily. There was an area with an outside paddling pool and a stream with stepping stone which we loved, and we'd probably be taken on another dreadful walk or two.

Great times!

My Mum was a teacher so there was never any issue with childcare in school holidays, but she didn't expect to have to entertain us. For most of my childhood there wouldn't have been money for clubs and playschemes even if they'd been available, which I think they weren't, back in the 1960s and 1970s. We entertained ourselves. I read a great deal and made regular trips to the library to change my books (on the bus, from the age of about 7). From before school age, my brother and I played outside with our friends, who were just as free range as we were. We were expected back for meals, we had to help with washing up and a few other chores, and we were sometimes taken shopping, to the dentist, haircuts, shoe shop etc but mostly we just got on with things ourselves. Occasionally we went to the cinema or the swimming pool (my Mum gave us the money and sent us on our way).

My Dad got two weeks off during our school summer holiday and we would go away for a cheap UK holiday (he had a company car and was the sole driver). One year the holiday would be staying with family in Scotland and the other year we would stay in a static caravan or a tiny primitive self-catering cottage or chalet, in Scotland or England or Wales. Because we always lived a long way from both sides of the family, they sometimes came to stay with us. That would involve a day out to a National Trust property or a drive in the country.

90s as a child, early 00s as a teenager.
We usually went away for a few weeks in the summer, sometimes for nearly the entire summer (to Finland to visit relatives - many long weeks spent in rural Lapland on my grandad's island fishing and exploring and swimming).

We went on some day trips, and lots of family bike rides, and for a couple of summers me and one of my brothers went to a sports centre playscheme thing for a week. Otherwise I played, with my brother, or by myself, and I think it was the summer when I was 11 that I was allowed to go off places by myself and meet friends and we'd wander round town or hang out at each other's houses.

As a teenager I'd hang out with my friends a lot. We lived by the sea then so I also went to the beach most days, my mum would nearly always be there so I'd wander down to meet her and her beach hut friends and have an ice cream and a chat and play with the little kids that were usually there to entertain them. Friday lunchtimes I'd join my mum's volleyball team for training on the beach.

I have very very fond memories of summer holidays, and want my children to have good memories too, though I can't afford to take us away every year. And my teenager prefers to sleep most of the summer but at least this year she has made plans with friends to go to the city and to the amusement park there. My youngest has one more summer in daycare then after that he will hopefully spend a lot of time playing with friends.

We had a foreign hot holiday during the summer where dm did not cook or clean.

Otherwise had to accompany dm everywhere on her rounds of food shop, bank, post office. There was no freezer and dm liked to buy fresh.

Otherwise my time was my own. We might have a day out to London for museums but I was expected to amuse myself bliss, lying in the hammock all day in the garden, reading. I was not allowed to tidy, clean or cook. Not that I wanted to:)

Fir my dc, its rhe same, apart from they are expected to be tidy, clean up, and they can bake etc. I am not entertainment director:)