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?

It’s the kids that are the problem and not the holiday. I would tell your partner to look after his kids and go out and enjoy a walk.

Yes this! No games no chat no fun. Thats what’s missing. Like how many X can you see or make it competitive. The DC’s POV is ‘we are on this walk counting down the hours until they let us go swimming’ which isn’t how it ought to be either.

I said why don’t you just do what you would do if I wasn’t here? Reality is they would lounge around a lot doing nothing at all, on devices and popping out to a park for an ice cream now and then

Cut your losses and go home. Leave them there, miserable lot.

I don’t know Norwich but I asked chat gpt and some of the stuff looks really good (mine are 10 and 12)
the bug parc ( biggest bug zoo, and adventure of insects and interactive experiences

Roar dinasaur adventure ( soft play indoors and out doors)

farkeham superbowl and escape room.

theres loads on there but mine acted like this a couple of years ago but in Turkey of all places (uk holidays they seem to be able to be entertained all day long) but basically in Turkey all they did was whinge they were bored and fight with each other so in the end I told them I was done with trying to make them happy it was going to be our last holiday abroad and for the rest of the holiday I focused on what made myself happy and this seemed to work they got out of their hump and began to enjoy themselves.

If this is what they’d be doing and they’d be happy doing it then I think you are just completely mismatched.

Reminds me of a terrible caravan holiday I went on with now ex (note the ex) dh. He literally slept all day, almost every day except for a stroll to the restaurants for lunch / dinner. Didn’t want to do anything really. My dd was 4ish at the time (he wasn’t her dad) and I ended up doing everything with her and he just said he was too exhausted to do anything. The second we got back I realised I had had enough. Holidays were important to me and they just were a completely different thing to him.

So let them do that, and you go out and do whatever you want to do. Then never holiday with them again.

There is a lovely arcade of shops in Yarmouth and it includes a lovely second hand bookshop .There is also a lovely old fashioned sweet shop not far from the arcade as far as I remember. Your children might like to go to both places. Norwich is not far and Lowestoft.

Get the train to Norwich, or drive, but parking is expensive. Walk round the market, explore the Lanes, wander round the cathedral and castle. It’s arty, quirky, historical, go to Elm Hill. Chips from Lucy’s off the market for lunch. Best chips ever! Lots of places that are free to explore.

If the kids love swimming I’d try and see if you can find a cool public pool with slides etc within a couple of hours drive of you, and make it a day out to get there and back, swim, have food etc.

And I would fairly swiftly agree with DH about seperate holidays and book yourself a lovely women’s walking/yoga/adventure holiday somewhere warm and interesting in September!

I’ve said my bit now and his suggestion was we don’t holiday together again. Right so instead of parenting, exclude me.

im not sure what you want here. You are having a shit time, so not holidaying together again is a good idea surely? But your response suggests like he said it and you took it as if it was a threat. Whereas ‘that’s actually a great idea, this isn’t any fun for me, next year I’ll go with Bella on a hiking retreat to Portugal.’ Would be a good result for you?

also, I would say your expectations of todays youth may be a bit too high. Swimming, arcades and screens is their idea of fun, hiking for miles is not. I’d say that’s normal and the more you post, the more I just think kids aren’t your thing, and that’s fine.

my kids are teenagers now and after a few years of getting so cross that their wants are different, I’ve now just accepted it, we all do our own thing but at least a few things each day together (normally dinner and at least one activity) and everyone is much happier.

I don't think you can lay the blame for the 0 joy the children's feet though. They need to be encouraged to do those things and led into it. That should be your partner. He should be actively entertaining them on these walks and yes that does make walks a million times more exhausting but also more fun. But it sounds like he's not stepping up.

So id say your options are ditch them all and walk off on your own but accept that you and him are actually a bit incompatible at least on the holiday front. Or you step up to his role and entertain the children if you want them to do the activities you prefer.

Either way, long term I think you're going to feel resentment

Agree with this, one of the adults needs to encourage the kids to have fun on the beach/ while they walk. If they aren't used to countryside walks and beaches the kids may need some encouragement and need to be shown some of the interesting bits, maybe how to find things in rock pools, games while they walk etc. and take snacks/pic-nics!!!

@arethereanyleftatall I really don’t want or expect them to walk for miles

There is a lot of day to fill, so walking will probably form part of it if sight seeing or visiting a new area. It’s just not possible to spend all of it in a pool or in an arcade, not 9am to 9pm every day.

What I explained to him about his wet parenting is that when they are passively aggressively moping that I think he ought to say something

obviously I think an adult should gee them up. I’m not mad at the kids.

The Entertainment is just them sitting at our table looking at all the other kids having fun and they won’t join in

That’s a shame they won’t even join in with the night time entertainment, that’s a big plus of a caravan holiday. At that age I liked the bingo! And yeah, the on site arcade is probably extortionate.

They want the £1 machines not really the 2p machines at this age @FanofLeaves

I can’t swim now for unrelated reasons so this might affect plans. I don’t know

We are not speaking now because he is wishing he was a single parent on his own again which was easier. I do understand it, I am a parent and I was a single parent, I’m not childless. I was a much younger mum and he is an older dad. He has a much lower threshold than me, he’s laid back, I think it’s hands off parenting and it causes friction, he would like me to just ignore it

Have you done the entertainment with them? So stand up and do half of the first stupid game until they have confidence and you can sneak back to your table?

It does come across like you're blaming the children tbh. Calling it passive aggressive behaviour. They're probably bored and I wouldnt be surprised if HE is moaning about it to them which has given them licence to mope about.

I'd hold the line on 2p machines though. They are quite enough even for me at 40+

If they kept this “bored” behaviour up I would just be inclined to say we are going home. I couldn’t put up with this nonsense

@Conversensational their parent is not teaching them this is not acceptable to mope about passive aggressively and it does seem to pay off - we stop doing that activity because of it! Plus he is not enriching the experience properly so yes, it’s boring AF

yes I get up and do the entertainment with them but they slope back to their seats every 7 seconds so it’s constant encouragement. I ended up getting involved in one thing one evening and turned around, kids had gone and sat down left me up there with kids I’ve never met!

DP ends up getting cross losing his temper that they won’t join in and saying right that’s it we are leaving, instead of bloody encouraging them earlier on

The boredom thing is also that they want the adults to do it for them. They won’t fish for longer than 10 minutes because it doesn’t yield instant results they expect us to make a fish come, but they do want a fish to go in their net.

I literally watched our 2 kids today with fishing nets, alongside a few smaller and similar age children who were sitting on the same river bank with a proper rod, fishing with bait, chilling out patiently waiting.

These kids were not squealing daddy daddy there is a fly on me, daddy daddy a leaf touched me, daddy daddy come and catch a fish for me I can’t do it nothing is happening and flinging the nets around. DP just wetly observing them saying oh keep trying and I am saying kids look, you won’t catch a fish with the net OUT of the water… put the net IN the water and wait (or I said to DP let’s make a move) then he got in a hump but they were making lots of racket and splashing which pissed off all the other people fishing. He’s oblivious to that

Anyway thanks for suggestions we going to do some more stuff tomorrow try not to kill each other in the process. I suggested the geocaching but I think he might opt for throwing money at it

No one’s enjoying the holiday or each other’s company. I’d just go home.

Let's be fair, fishing is boring as fuck so who can blame them. And if they try and have fun and splash about you say they need to leave?

Honestly, I feel sorry for them. If they would rather be in the pool then go for a walk that's fine, let them. Just because you can't swim at the moment why would you stand in their way?

Let them make their own fun, and stop trying to impose your kind of holiday on them.

A pot of 2ps keeps old and young happy usually in my experience...
It sounds like you have got into a tense rut. Somehow, need to shift that.

If you are in Great Yarmouth lots of traditional seaside things to do. At 8 and 10 it is a shame if they don't enjoy them.

I again will mention the model village and icecream next door. The old fashioned arcade there fun. You buy bags of old pennies for the vintage machines.

Crazy golf...indoor version or outdoor. Fair rides? Cheesy chips. Cafés for brunch/ lunch.

Competitive sand castle type things. See whose structure / moats/ islands withstands tide coming in best. Something for Dad maybe. You do have to check tides here as can take too long!
Kite on the beach. Adult get it up first.

Does your caravan park do go carts round park or Sedgeways?
Good luck...

The kids sound badly behaved and annoying but so do you. Theyre not the famous five. Fishing IS boring. entertainment is hellish. Why don’t you let them swim? Leave them with their dad and take yourself off and have a long walk followed by a glass of wine with a book?

I don’t really understand why you’re trying to enforce all this ‘fun’ that no one enjoys.