to hate the school holidays?

[LucieMay]

I seem to come across so many parents who love the school holidays and spending lots of time with their DCS. I'm the opposite- I always cannot wait for them to end, particularly the big six weeker in summer.

DS is in Y1 but when he went into reception, I got the biggest shock of my life- I'd worked full time up till then (from him being age two, was p-t up till the age of two, but babies are easier to entertain!) and obviously nursery is open 51 weeks a year! I'm on my own with DS and he's a very sociable child and very quickly gets bored without other children unless we're constantly out and about.

I find it very challenging. I plan activities every day (including seeing other mothers and kids where possible but almost all of my friends with kids work f/t) but I don't have an endless pot of money and even when we go for a day out, it only takes five hours max and I have 12 hours a day to fill!

It's not too bad now it's the warmer weather as he sometimes plays out with the local kids but the winter holidays are hard work. One day I could not think of anything new to do and ended up just taking him out for a pub lunch because I needed to see other people!

True, it's nice to have a break from the school run/commute/washing school uniform but that novelty wears out very quickly. I love DS to bits and we're very close but I definitely enjoy his company more when I have less of it and I think he feels the same sometimes although this school holidays (he's off for 16 days! and I'm off work for all of them!) he keeps telling me at the end of every day what a good day he's had and how much he enjoys being with me and i feel so guilty because I just don't feel the same all of the time- I love being with him when we're out and about but come 5pm when we're home I just feel a sense of dread. I find it impossible to get any housework done and long for adult conversation. Am I bad parent or does anyone else feel like this?

I used to love the school holidays. No nagging and rushing the children to get out on time. We could just have relaxing mornings. I have 3 DDs so they could okay together if they wanted to. I didn't feel the need to entertain them all the time but we did do cheap or free days out. I miss this now they are all grown up although I don't miss the arguments . I know it must be more difficult fir an only child. Do any of his friends live locally so that he could go to their house and vice versa?

I love them but with 5 DC I have never had to entertain them. Alot of my friends have only children and often invite friends round etc.

yanbu. I hate them with a vengeance. dd has SN and needs 24 hour care. 6 weeks of that is a killer and no daytime sleep catch up (she is up all night)
We cant go more than a walk from the house as she wears pads so needs changing and there's nowhere to change a pre-teen who needs hoisting.
Oh, and she gets bored but cant see or do anything like playing so needs hands on entetainment from 4am till 10pm.
sob at half term.

YABU.

I fucking LOVE the school holidays, my work commute is way better.

I like them, i like not having to have my life revolve round the school bus, and dd(17 severly disabled) likes just chilling, we are lucky as she will go to youth scheme one day next week, then we are meeting up with another mum and her teenfor lunch add in a hospital appointment and the week will fly by.

best bit no need to set the alarm

KalSkirata. That sounds rough . Don't you get any respite care?

If you find it that bad, why not team up with a group of friends and hire a scout hall one day a week, you can stay all day, take a picnic and soem toys and the kids can play together. They tend to cost about £10 for a day.

Are kids no good at making their own entertainment these days? Do they not play out with other kids?

"Are kids no good at making their own entertainment these days? "

Generally speaking, no. They are completely useless.

I'd make them do the chores with me evil

Not necessarily Soup. I was just at a friends house with a load of kids and we hardly had to do anything - they played and we drank tea. It was great. The only kids who wouldn't play were the ones whose mother never gives them a moment's peace.

non-sn kids you can heave out the door with a bag of crisps like my mum used to do in ages past

Callin, That's why I san generally speaking. Mine have done it but only when in a big group and not nearly as many times as they have whined that they are bored, despite having a huge garden and 4 billion things to do/play with.

KalSkirata and they can play out as well,
perhaps we should try it, just park ours in the street.

I hat school holidays to! Ds2 still gets up early so no lie in. I have 2 boys that need to be outside as much as possible. Thank god for the park opp. My house is always full of kids. Parents live in UK I'm in Oz. When we lived in UK parents weren't much help, MIL once said 'but he doesn't sit still for more than 5 minutes!!". Well mil this is why I'm asking for some help over the weekend you visit!!!!

My DD has always played on her own for periods of time, right from being little. I was never going to be able to play 100% of the time with her, so she had to learn to. It wasn't because I was mean or didn't want to be with her, just that I felt it was important that she learnt to play on her own.

Right now I have 10y DD here, her school friend (same age) and school friend's brother (my godson, who is 4y). They are playing together at the table, making models out of the recycling card boxes. 4y godson this morning (it was just us then) played some time with me and other times on his own - Lego. transformers, a sticker book, etc.

If it was dry they'd be outside in the garden playing. If the 4y wans't here and it was dry the older two owuld be outside on scooters/bike or at park.

I find the six weeks holidays stressful and expensive. We try to do stuff that's free, but the places are either crowded or it's not that interesting. ds1 has adhd and becomes very frustrated and upset if he's not doing something that occupies him. He's also uncooperative and argumentative which makes for some difficult days out I save up all year round so that we do have money for trips, but I think four weeks would be enough tbh. By the end I'm exhausted, bored and tearing my hair out. We have no babysitter, so it's just relentless kiddie care every day. I sometimes find myself wanting to duct tape their mouths.

On a Friday when friends (Katz and DH) come over, and I have their girls after school, and we stay and eat/drink in the evening we have a rule - if we can see you, it's time to go home. Needless to say the girls disappear and play without needing us.

Obviously SN makes life more difficult and I appreciate that.

I hate the school holidays - but because my DD is not in school yet and during the holidays everything we usually do shuts down and every other option is full of screaming kids...... obviously my DD is a perfect child and never an annoyance to anyone

I love the holidays and actually find it a lot easier.

My nightmare time is term time after school 3.15 : 7:00. I hate to admit it but I really really detest this time and struggle to cope. For some reason it's easier to cope in the holidays, not sure why.

Not much to add, apart from YANBU. Under the circumstances you describe, I'd be demented too! Luckily I have 2 DCs close in age and they play together really well.

Having said that, this is the first year they've been in state school/nursery (they've previously spent 2 afternoons pw in a private nursery), so ask me again at the beginning of September. Despite being a SAHM, I've never looked after them by myself for more than a week .

I loathe having to work to a routine, particularly someone else's so the holidays are a very welcome break from the monotony of school/work runs.

DH and I both work term time only (I now work a few hours a week in the hols but have booked them off for half term) so we do have two pair of hands but equally can get under each other's feet a bit - I was virtually begging him to go out tonight so I can have an evening to myself before the hols kick off!

Absolutely totally and utterly love them.