What do you do about days out in the 30 degree heat?

[Emmaagain007]

I’m currently off work with my 10yo. I had some things planned for this week, a farm park & maze, an outdoor museum, doing some gardening, walks.

It’s forecast to be 32 degrees here by midday. We are both fair skinned and neither of us cope at all well in the heat, both get miserable, irritable ds panics even getting into the car.

Just interested to know what you get up to in this sort of weather? Do you just put suncream and hats on and get on with it?

As much as I’ve loved the long hot Summer it’s ruining my plans.

The outdoor lidos are all booked up, local splash parks will be heaving and ds would find that boring anyway.

It will always depend on your heat tolerance.

For me the heat isn’t an issue but for you and ds it is.

Can you get a paddling pool for garden and have shade? Go out for lunch. Cinema is usually air conditioned.

If you go to a zoo then make plans to be in shade as much as possible but that only works if you can tolerate heat.

local lake/ beach?

bowling? Arcades if near a beach etc?

my plans today are going to do a quick top up shop in a bit, sit in garden with podcast and then go for a long walk along the beach later when tide is almost in as it’s cooler.

Tomorrow it’s to take kayak down to the beach for a bit and maybe a dip in the sea.

The good news is that many indoor places are quieter when the suns out!

We tend to go out in the morning or to places with plenty of shade. I love the sun but DD and DH are both very fair skinned and wilt in the heat. When we are out all day we take a picnic blanket, plenty of water and suncream, ice packs to keep everything cold and hats that keep the sun off their necks. We also try to be realistic about what we can do, they cannot tolerate brisk walks in the full sun so we need to pace ourselves or we just end up with 2 sunburnt sweaty messy mardy people and me so annoyed by the whining I feel like my head will explode.

I stay indoors.
But if I had young children, I would be putting a paddling pool out, maybe going to the woods or a park in the very early morning or late evening.
I would check places like local cinema/mall for aircon.

Personally I go with one of two options:

involve water (sea, river, lake, in extremeis paddling pool)

or

go out early get back for about 2 and then siesta

I tend to choose water based activities. Do you have any inflatable obstacle courses near you? Sea? Lake?

Swimming pool
Indoor museum, bonus is that they’re normally quiet when it is sunny
Early dinner and then down to the beach

Swimming pool
Indoor museum, bonus is that they’re normally quiet when it is sunny
Early dinner and then down to the beach

My kids are small we need to be out so we just sun cream, hats, get out as early as possible, bring a blanket sit under a tree , go somewhere with water to cool off

Woodlands are magical on hot days

That made me laugh.

It’s funny how some people can tolerate heat and others can’t.

I don’t remember ever being like this when I was a child, but then I don’t think it really got past the mid 20s.

Last heatwave we visited a cathedral because we knew it would be cool inside. Ditto for cinema - ours has £1 showings during the week in summer (Cineworld). Otherwise, paddling pool at home and take it easy.

We just go armed with icy water, a cool bag in the car with drinks and suitable snacks, hats/sunglasses, light and airy clothes, suncream and a picnic blanket to take shelter under a tree if its getting a bit too warm.

Air con on in the car.

Walks can be done earlier/later in the day to avoid mid day sun.

Museums tend to be cooler/more shady

Maze and farm park go at earliest possible time (if no time frame) and can shelter inside/in wooded areas if needed throughout

Thank you for the ideas. There is an inflatable obstacle course we have already been there. There’s a couple of Lidos but they are booked up all week.

We are going to go swimming to the indoor pool.

It is what it is, you either go out early (trouble is places don’t open until 10) or you stick to indoors.shaded woodland.

I wish it was a few degrees cooler.

I go out and enjoy it 🤷‍♀️

Water based activities arent the best for young children in heat. Or anyone who doesn't like heat.

The sunlight will reflect off the water and give one a thorough roasting and you need so much stronger sunblock etc

Shade is your friend

We get to the beach and make sure we have a parasol, decent suncream and rash vest for DS. It's what we did on holiday abroad recently. A woodland walk would also be nice. If we need to be indoors then we'd do the cinema, arcade, etc.

I had my slippers on yesterday as the weather was miserable where I am, so I'm quite excited for it to warm up!

Go out before 11am only and after 6pm

So far in the heat this past few days we've done a splash park (absolutely rammed and hard to find any shaded space to sit) and the woods (was perfect)

Today is just too hot to do much (30c+ here) so we went swimming early and we are going to head to the inlaws shaded north facing garden and chill there for the day. We'll get the paddling pool out, have a picnic type lunch and ice cream.

Inlaws are away but happy for us to use their garden as we don't have much outside space (just sun trap of a terrace)

Tomorrow we have cinema booked so we'll have the benefit of air con.

Next week we have loads of outdoor stuff planned and it's looking high 20's so we'll just crack on with hats and sunscreen.

I do splash parks

I was so cross yesterday about today's plans being more complicated by the heat. Having friends to visit but between specific trains they are getting and DD's paid for activity we needed to be out of the house for about 6 hours. All outdoor and dog friendly but now can't bring the dog because it would be dangerously hot and I've had to call on PIL yet again to have her. Last week would have been fine.

But last week there were multiple ridiculous threads claiming it was Autumnal and people were packing up their summer clothes for the year. Bonkers.

I’ve got a 2 and 5 year old.
If we know it’s going to be a really hot day, we go out first thing. Tbh, we do that anyway as we’re all early birds😅

We went to a national trust place yesterday, went to the nearby woodlands first where there’s a timber playground, the gardens opened at 10am, the kids had a great time running around exploring the gardens , we had a small picnic , got an ice cream and were home by 11.45.
We spent the rest of the day in and out of our garden (it doesn’t get much sun till about
2ish, so cool & shady)

Most of our days out are prebooked and paid for so we just get on with it. If we don't have anything booked then we would opt for indoor activities like a big indoor museum or gallery that fills the day, or several indoor places like theatre/cinema + soft play/swim/library.
My dcs are younger and they are a bit easier to keep occupied. We stay in the shade or do outdoor stuff earlier in the day if we can, but sometimes we end up in an unshaded playground at noon and they are fine with hats and suncream. I have quite olive skin and never burn, DH is fair skinned and the dcs are fairly heat tolerant.

We went ice-skating the other day.aboslutley dead there were time we were the only ones on the ice and it was lovely and cold!

Go out but early morning and later in the afternoon