British weather on holiday with bored kids help

[Towelles]

On holiday in Norfolk with DH and SDC for a week. It’s overcast and windy. I am an outdoors person but SDC (primary aged) aren’t so we can’t do activities any water sports. They don’t really like walking far

The caravan park facilities are ok but the arcade and food is expensive. It’s too cold to swim in the pool longer than an hour. The on site park is shit. The beach is lovely but very windy and the kids are bored after an hour or so. There is evening entertainment so that’s all covered it’s the day times

We have been mostly driving around trying to find things to do. Went to a play park today with a zip wire that actually charged adults to go in and frankly it was a rip off.

We went to see the seals the DC thought that was boring.

I would be happy to do coastal walks or hire bikes I think it’s beautiful here

About to hire a boat to go on the broads (for ££££) (I would also like to walk around but I don’t think this will be popular) so basically it’s me sitting in the back of a boat watching the SDC argue about who is steering it

Can anyone suggest ideas?

we tried crabbing yesterday but the kids got bored as we didn’t catch anything

they then slept in till 10am so most of the day was gone by the time everyone got dressed

please help me save my sanity - is this going to just cost me £1,000 to make this week any good?

Where abouts in Norfolk?there's a Sealife centre in great Yarmouth which is good.They have penguins.

we cost this up and just doesn’t look like good value for money. It’s so expensive and not sure it will last a whole day?

I changed up all my Tesco club card vouchers for pleasurewood hills tickets so that’s one day out planned

I know there are fireworks on Wednesdays so we can go to that

Bewilderwood
norwich - castle and cathedral and shops
get wetsuits for the kids and bodyboards?
sealife Great Yarmouth

I remember a rainy holiday as a kid we ran out of things to do entirely and went to the cinema!

i think you are right and you ahve to throw some money at it. Is there a leisure centre with a pool or an indoor climbing wall nearby or a bowling alley or an indoor laser tag place or indoor mini golf?

Cheap smoked bacon and high tide has always led to successful crabbing for us.

Whereabouts in Norfolk are you, and how old are the SDC’s?

If young would recommend the dinosaur park near Norwich. There’s also one of those city art trails, I think this year it’s safari animals, and it takes you all around the city. It’s free, although the app is £2 to download.

Get kidspass for £1 on a trial month and you can make savings on the aquarium if you want to go. It probably does still work out as quite expensive though.

So you’re near Yarmouth? Or Lowestoft? If you’re more specific it’ll be easier to make suggestions.

Africa Alive is a good animal park and they often have summer deals on family tickets.

I am near Yarmouth but we have a car so can go anywhere

Kids 8 and 10 which isn’t helping as they don’t really want to DO anything at all

How old are the DCs?

A day wandering around Norwich - castle, museums, river, shops etc
Pensthorpe is nice - https://share.google/wVzDWJaz8Fl9zJiJG
Several national trust places
Heritage railway - North Norfolk Railway – The Poppy Line https://share.google/ludtVEHvTSqetTbdm
Cromer is nice for a wander, pier etc. Amazona zoo nearby

Amazona Zoo, Cromer, Norfolk https://share.google/nK3EcBKBGXe68wqV7

I'd leave them with your DH in the accommodation with phones/iPads and take myself out for the day. There's a pressure to have amazing family holidays but the reality is that some DC really don't want to do any activities.

The kids are the problem. How sad that they're finding everything boring.

Family days out are indeed costly though. If we were on holiday in U.K. there’d probably be one ‘big ticket’ and the rest 2p slots and beach. What do they like to do? Could you hire bikes or a kayak, would they be up for that?

The weather doesn’t look toooo bad tbh. It certainly could be worse.

Ok for bad weather days on a UK holiday I will try amd set DD9 a charity shop challenge - what cool jigsaws and boars games can we get? We also like a craft challenge amd can get most stuff from the highstreet

Yes I suspect they are used to a lot of screen time.

At 8 and 10 they might enjoy these. They can be in charge, especially the treasure trails. If you need help with geocaching just shout.

https://www.geocaching.com/play

this is totally free, all you need is a smart phone.

https://www.treasuretrails.co.uk/pages/trail-search?location=norfolk

These are about a tenner for the whole family.

We found norfolk very expensive e.g steam rail £75, cromer pier show £116. Didn't do those.
Did bewilderwood using tesco vouchers. Best money spent was on duck food and mine are older than yours.

We enjoyed all the boating.

This.
We always had UK holidays in the past. Sometimes the weather came up trumps, sometimes it didn't. But 'I'm bored' wasn't an option. Bring people get bored. They sound over stimulated, lacking in imagination and screen obsessed.

Gosh, the SDC sound tedious.

Why is this your problem to resolve? What does their dad say about this?

Ah I missed the first line of your post when it said they don’t do outdoor activities.

Well now’s a great time for them to try. They sound a bit whingy tbh. If I’d been taken out seal watching at that age I’d have got short shrift by saying out loud it was ‘boring’

I wouldn’t be throwing money at ungratefulness tbh.

My idea isn’t about this holiday. It’s to think about the future - do you really want to spend your precious holiday time this miserable? If you like him, just date him; and when he takes his kids on holiday next year, do something else. Personally, I’d rather be completely single than have to do an unpaid full time job (which looking after someone else’s kids is) in my free time.

This soubds like a DH problem. What does he think / want to do?

I would leave them to it. Go for a nice walk or bike ride on your own and enjoy being away

One wet caravan holiday my parents took us to see the same movie twice as they were desperate! I have very fond memories of the Jewel of the Nile.
Is there a better pool nearby, a trampoline park, NT house or castle? Get up really early and go to a fish market? UK holidays are very expensive I find.

Don’t…honestly this holiday is the type of holiday where you question all your life choices

Me bringing up any issues with the DC finding things boring upsets my DP and he will turn on me and make it sound like I am expecting too much

No boats for hire. Currently walking snails pace down a few sections of the river, similar to if you had toddlers. Never done so few steps on this kind of holiday before.

We had to go on a UK break as my DP fucked up his annual leave and this was all we could afford in the end

I refuse to spend ££££ on any water sports or such like when they will whinge

I think at age 10 the aquarium is not going to be interesting I think if we just gave them money and sent to the arcade maybe that would get us through the week!

yesterday I went for a walk on my own I will do that again today. I’m really upset we cut short our trip to Horsey beach as that was nice (but they moaned)

God it sounds as if the kids are bored by everything? Don’t throw any more money at it. They will survive.