Mostly I really like the holidays but that is because despite DS having ASD DH and I share out the holidays. I loved the Christmas break and was very unhappy to go back to school/work.
So in the summer we take a two week holiday all together (I always like this and look forward to it). The remaining 3-4 weeks, I take 2 days a week off (I work PT anyway so only need to take a few hours out of my holiday each week for this ) Ds takes one or two days a week off, depending on work load and holidays he has left and DS goes to a summer club one or two days a week.
This way Ds never does the same thing too many days in a row, he alternates days with me and dh and summer clubs. We sometimes arrange some things with other kids or trips out but certainly not more tha n a couple of things a week and that is interspersed with summer clubs where he gets to play with other kids a lot
We do a similar thing for this for all the other holidays too. However we
- Have two people managaing one child (albeit with SN)
- Jobs where we can organise the holidays like this
- Not much money but enough to do some things out of the house
- Allow Ds to have whole days watching TV/playing computer games sometimes (though rarely two in a row(, without any guilt
All in all I loathe ds going back to school usually, partly because of the school runs and all that stuff you have to remember as a parent of a primary school child (last minute letters etc) but mostly because he has behavioural problems there and I get tired of the constant reports of it and the worry . At home we have a peaceful time, though there are always the odd rows and problems it is usually fun overall.
I do understand how people could find it very difficult though, especially if they have little money, children who don't get one with each other, not much space, bad weather etc.