Just nice summer holiday memories!

[ClassicStripe]

We’ve had such a lovely day just playing board games with DD — nothing fancy, just a quiet, fun day at home. It made me wonder what she’ll remember when she’s older. Will it be days like this, just being together and laughing over a board game, or will it be the big-ticket events — holidays, days out, special occasions?
One of my clearest summer memories is something so simple: going to Sainsbury’s with my nanny to get party food for a picnic in the garden with my cousins. I can still picture the sausage rolls and giant smartie cookies, and the excitement of it all.
What are some of your favourite summer holiday memories — the big ones or the quiet, everyday kind? Would love to indulge in some nostalgia!

What I remember is just going out to play all day everyday and the weather was always beautiful 😍 90's childhood

Picking apples and pears at a local farm that had been bought for development.

Me & little sis spent the day picking in their abandoned orchard. Came home with carrier bags full of plums, apples and pears. Sunburnt shoulders, scraped knees from climbing trees. Handed our haul over to mum who spent the rest of the week making plum jam, chutney and apple pies, and wrapping and storing pears.

I was about 10 😊

Popping tar bubbles in the middle of the road with my friends and running to the pavement when the half hourly bus came.

There's cars down that road every few seconds now.

I don’t remember summer holidays much, we were sent to grandparents for 6 weeks as my mum was working (and then had a break with her friend!) but I do have the odd memory of making hammocks in my grandparents garden and being taken to the park.
I didn’t really go on an abroad holiday or any other kind of holiday with my mum when I was young.
My dc now (2 are in their early 20’s) remember teddy bears picnics, under the table picnics, den building, the massive lego house we built that we could all sit in aswell
as holidays we took abroad with them. So a mixture really.
I always loved the ‘relaxing’ days at home though, so much joy to be found in the simple things.

It might be the big things that specifically get mentioned when she’s older, but it’s the little things like how you spent time focusing on her, gave her a cuddle when she was sad, celebrated her successes, etc that add up to give the memory of how she felt when she spent time with you, which feeds into the emotion connected to the big things.

Wading in the local river up to our knees with pants pulled up and holding a bucket trying to catch the fish. Catching the fish, admiring it, then putting it back again.

Going to Bolton Abbey to swim in the river there. Parents got out a disposable bbq and we all had dinner. Every time I smell a disposable bbq fire it takes me back. The river is raging now, can’t swim in it anymore.

Playing hide and seek in the fields near our house with local kids. Then getting chased by the horses when they spotted us. Building dens in the fields in the trees.

Going to the top shop with a £1 and getting loads of penny sweets and making the poor shop keeper count them all out 😅

Some of my happiest holiday memories are from 1973, when I was 9. We went to a Pontins camp site,Camber Sands in East Sussex. It absolutely chucked it down with rain for the first 2 days so me,my 2 older brothers and mum and dad spent a lot of time in the chalet playing Monopoly and Scrabble. On the third day,the weather improved vastly and I spent hours every day in the huge swimming pool, cycling around the camp site on a hired bicycle,or ambling around on a donkey (that just would not stop chomping the grass 😂). I can't imagine many parents allowing their 9 year olds so much freedom nowadays.

Going off on my bike for the day with friends and a picnic. We used to cycle miles!

I remember the excitement of a caravan holiday. I was fascinated by beds that you pulled down from the wall at night and put away in the morning. Mam and Dad went to the pub one night (they rarely went to the pub at home) and left us in the caravan with our older sister in charge. They gave us money for fish and chips. It was all so exciting - the freedom of the caravan park and the freedom of being home alone and having a take away by ourselves.

Going to an amusement park and going on lots of rides - waving proudly to Mam and Dad.

Days at the beach with our home made sandwiches and a big bottle of Club Orange. Maybe a ride on the donkey. Making sandcastles and digging holes in the sand.

A day at the zoo. Dad would always joke about going to see our cousins at the zoo. When I was little, I didn't understand the joke and I would argue that they weren't our cousins.

Back home we'd play out all day with our friends. Hide and seek or chasing or ball games or skipping. Riding around on our bikes. A friend's Dad owned a bike shop and he'd give us bike stickers or transfers for our bikes. Sometimes someone would get a cool new toy for their birthday - something like a space hopper or a kite. Everyone would queue up for a go. We'd only go home for our meals or (reluctantly) when we were called home at the end of a long day.

If it was a very hot day (rare in Ireland) we'd head off to the swimming pool. Millions of kids and not an adult in sight.

I think what I remember most is the sense of freedom - the freedom from routine and classrooms and homework and all of that. The start of the summer holidays was the best - all of those weeks stretching ahead of you, full of promise. It's something I miss as an adult.

When our 5 year old went into school they told the teacher the best thing they did during summer was go to Tesco!

I briefly explained we had taken them on a beach holiday on the south coast in case the school thought that the only place we took them was the supermarket

Nice thread. Been blackberry picking today. Wonder if children still do that today?

What a lovely thread 🤗

My DC's are adults now. When they were kids we went to the same place on holiday every year, by choice, because we all loved it there and it felt like a second home. We hired a villa with a pool.

When we talk about summer with the kids they talk about those holidays but the memories that are special to them, that they always talk about, are the times when we would sit outside after having tea in the villa in the evening playing cards. Not the fancy meals out or the expensive things we did, but the family time we shared after scoffing down frozen pizzas and garlic bread from the local shop. The laughs we had, while playing cards.

Funnily enough its the things they love most about Christmas gone by too. Not the presents or the gifts but the family times in the evening playing games and laughing together.

Some of my DC's favourite memories from childhood has always been the simple stuff. Watching Take me out and X-Factor on a Saturday evening, our walks and picnics by the river, riding their bikes with their Daddy, crafting and colouring with their Nanny.

So, the big expensive shows and grand gestures are all great but those little times, those family moments can be even more special because those are the times where they feel loved, needed, wanted, happy and content. ❤

7 of us from the estate would go out straight after breakfast and explore the woods or go in the river ( imagine that now) we would all go home for tea and then be back out the next day .
This was the early 80’s

Making perfume from rose petals.