To think I have been the worst mother this school holiday!

[handwasher]

I just have to vent. I feel terrible and like I am an awful mother as I have found these school holidays such hard work and feel like I am on the edge of a nervous breakdown! I truely just want to put my head in my hands and cry.

DS is 4 and a half (starts school in Sept) DD is 2. They are both lovely but naughty and bloody hard work spririted. Although we have had days out I find it really hard to take them anywhere on my own as they are both bolters and I can't really trust them to stay with me. If we attempt to go out for a meal it is hell on earth as DD just crys, whines and runs around everywhere. I tried to take them to the cinema and again DD ran around screaming and kept wanting to leave whereas all the other kids her age sat still (although to be fair she is still quite young). This means that when it is just me during the week we have been limited in where we can go - no exciting theme parks or farms etc as I just can't do it on my own.

Even a simple trip to the shops becomes a nightmare of logistics and getting ready, and crying and screaming when we go round the store.

We have done crafts and baking and been to friends houses but this doesn't fill up the 13 hours that I have to fill each day so we have probably watched far too much TV but I just can't be entertaining all day surely? How do people fill the days?

I try to get them to play on their own, or just sit reading a book but they won't. They have a garden and plenty of toys but they just want to follow me around all day. I can't even seem to get any basic admin done as DD starts pressing the computer and pulling my legs etc. DD and DS seem to argue loads and whine and winge. DS wants to chat all the time and ask questions about diggers and trains which is tiring too.

They are watching a film at the moment and I feel like a faliure as I have not been the best mother this holiday and can't wait for school and pre-school to start. I'm a SAHM and have been with them all day every day all holiday. My DH is good when at home but he works away frequently and is not back till late on the nights he is back.

I just want to scream "leave me alone" at them! But obviously I don't. Everyoen else on facebook looks so happy. Like they are having a wonderful time with their well behaved kids. I see pics of their days out and wonder why I can't take mine out like that. I feel like my kids will just remember a grumpy mummy and will hate me for never taking them anywhere!

Even just reading this back I feel like a terrible mother for complaining.

how does anyone know how hard a small age gap is till they do it? its a bit of a stupid comment to make & it being hard does not mean you don't like your children!!
I think in a few years time when your children are older it will pay off. That's what's keeping me going any how lmao.

oh and forgot to add that once the children are here we can't hand them back and say its too hard, so all around drinks a very un helpful none constructive comment

Put headphones on and listen to music loud - so you can see them but not hear them too much so you get a bit of respite?

I am a teacher. There are times in the holidays when I'd far rather be at school with a class of teenagers.

My "teacher glare" absolutely does not work on my own children. They are immune to its power.

my best mate is a teacher and I always say to her "teachers pest, mothers rest" haha. she won't want to go back next week, I on the other hand will be skipping down the road on school run day!!

I'm at the point of the holidays where my children (6, 5, 3 and 2) would get sent merrily off with the first person to offer me a vaguely decent price for them. I love them but they are driving me doolally.

I am sooooooo looking forward to waving the older 3 off on Tuesday that I could weep with anticipation.

handwasher you are just normal. Honestly. It should get easier as they get older. I have one ASD child and one "spirited" and out of the two of them it's debatable which is the harder work! I can manage either on their own just fine but the chemistry between them is so volatile that taking them out is exhausting. I can now enjoy and look forward to outings but I couldn't at your dcs ages. I have babysat for other people's children, I am around kids a lot, I know there is a difference! I also had PND and sleep deprivation and every day was about survival for me back then.

It is really hard to explain the level of involvement from their parents that some children demand and crave - as they get older they will learn to be companions for each other or will be able to play imaginatively and creatively with other children - it WILL get easier! Also some highly creative and curious children are especially, er, creative and curious about everything in their environment and whatever activities you devise for them tend to get embroidered upon and turn into chaos. So you have to find ways to recharge your batteries from the stress and concentration of troubleshooting and managing and preventing everything from going totally pear-shaped. It's fine to watch CBeebies cuddled up together surreptitiously looking at a book behind their back I used to grit my teeth, go to the playground and the library, come back exhausted and reward myself with a coffee and TV time.

SureStart were a lifesaver for me, I used to bung dd in the buggy (she was a bolter), grab ds' hand tightly, and fling myself on the mercy of the staff who would keep an eye on one while I played with the other. They had all the lovely mumsy activities I hadn't the energy to provide. I also read loads and loads of books to them.

The irony is that since then I have had people say I make them feel inadequate because I do so much with my kids and seem like such a "fun" mother - I lose no time in disillusioning them! You sound like a lovely mum - just get through it and ignore the "powermums" :)

Forget facebook! Drink wine, remember this too will pass.

YABU for the title though, unless your Rose West?

I feel for you, mine are DD1 &DD2 13/9YRS and DS is 15mths, hormonal/stroppy/mouthy horrors! These holidays have been trying as the weather has been so wet, I live out in the counrty, at their age I would have taken a picnic and buggered off into the woods to build tree houses and the like, nope, mine have moaned/bitched/mouthed off about the fact there is nothing to do, they each have laptops/3DS'S/WII/360/I Pods etc, 15 mth old has tried to climb tables/stair gates/stick fingers in the rats cage/squash kitten etc etc etc xx

I have felt like the worst mother on several occasions this holiday (mine are 16, 12, 8 and 5), we have been mostly out of the house as being inside is hard work! Although the older ones do their own thing most of the time, we still lose our tempers with each other when we are together. Talking to friends, we all feel like we are at the ends of our tether even though we love our children! You are not alone!

My two are 6 and 2. I've really struggled this year and it has got worse as the time has gone on.

Getting to next week makes me feel a bit like Robinson Crusoe desperately swimming to shore! My nerves are shot and I'm clean out of ideas/motivation. I just want some headspace and to be able to get some stuff done!

Dranksinatra must be a troll because a real mum would never say something so stupid.

Two year olds in particular are absolutely exhausting!!

Hahahaha fb!!

DS has ASD, it is horrendous to keep him amused in the holidays, hard work taking him out etc etc.

But I have taken some wonderful happy photos of him playing in foam, in the woods (in the 5 minutes he wasn't bolting) etc etc.

On the face (book) of it, it looks like I've coped remarkably well in the summer.

People on here know better