It's the last day of term, AIBU to want to emigrate (without kids)

[Doingakatereddy]

7 weeks, yes 7 whole weeks of 14 hour days with DS (4) and DD (16 months) and for some stupid reason I'm a SAHM

I want to cry and wail, run away and never see a park / soft play ever again

Tell me I will cope, I've seen the frenzied eyes of mums before in the summer hols but nothing prepares you for the fear.

I can see both sides here. I totally understand that being worried about how to fill your days with edifying, entertaining activities in the school holidays doesn't mean you don't love your kids (wtf?) but equally, personally I love not having to be up and out of the house by a certain time and not having imposed structure to our days. I always feel sad when term starts again.

I will start full time work next week for the first time since pregnancy with my eldest (7 years ago) and I am going to miss both my children horribly, and i know I will look back at summer holidays with a hazy sentimental glow and forget all the bits that I found hard at the time.

I've made a list of days out, parks/walks to go on, and rainy day activities. My kids haven't finished school yet though, so I'll possibly be struggling too in a weeks time!

I have 3 boys, 8, 7 and 2. The oldest has SN, which also adds to the challenge, as well as the age gap. I need structure to the days to help ds1 feel secure. So I'm planning on getting out of the house by 10, doing whatever, then relaxing at home from mid afternoon. I'm also building in free, less structured time as I think kids need to learn to entertain themselves too.

I also can't take them swimming or to the cinema due to their ages/numbers.

It is hard sometimes OP, but it's also a time you'll look back on fondly (when you've forgotten the crappy bits)

Oh yes, and I'm getting shopping delivered as the price of delivery is less than the additional cost of the stuff they'll want me to get if I take them shopping with me. Plus I can get it ordered while drinking coffee in my pyjamas.

Now I do enjoy the summer holidays for one good reason: my DC's are older!!
Apart from the toddler but she's quite amenable to joining in with everybody else (which I realise makes me damn lucky). My eldest is a teenager and does the whole taking off for the day with his mates thing and the rest get kicked out into the garden at the earliest opportunity.
Summer hols with younger children are definitely harder and I totally understand the need to leave the country, once a few years ago I found myself wishing for a minor accident to land me in hospital for a week just to get some rest

it gets easier. I hated summer holidays when i had preschoolers. Theyre full on, all the groups are shut, all the soft plays and parks are rammed. everywhere is packed. I felt stuck.

now theyre a little older im looking forward to not having to rush in the mornings.

Have you got any friends you can do picnics in the park with? can you get away anywhere over the holiday to break it up?

there might be stuff you can check out in your local area, but dont feel they need proper entertainment all holiday. Try and take it slower.

But these are the glorious, long holidays that everyone envies teachers for!
There's about 4 years between my two, and that could be tricky at times, finding things that they could both do with only one adult available to mind and monitor. I did love the holidays though.
I found by having very low standards and not feeling I had to do exciting and constantly varying stuff, we got through the holidays happily.
We did a lot of pottering, walking, playing at home, making and baking, the garden was exciting...

Not sure I understand the serious and judgy posts, I took Op as lighthearted moan, didn't think for one minute she doesn't like her dcs.

Another tip perhaps for next year is keep back one or two birthday or Christmas presents and then give them during the summer holidays. I woke up in the night remembering I used to do that.
My eldest DS is 25 and I can hand on heart say the holidays will get easier.

i thought they never would.

also big middle finger up to the judgy parents who cannot believe that anyone might find 7 weeks of solitary continuous parenting with no break, daunting, or that it means they shouldnt have had kids.

Absolutely Branleuse - I cannot believe that people have come on to a thread specifically about how hard the OP thinks the holidays will be & have just talked about how fabulous they are. Smug smuggy smug smugs. Totally unsupportive & unhelpful.
Where are you OP? Have you tried the Mumsnet local boards to see if there are any meet ups?

Rather not out myself ladygracie but I have spent this evening searching out different activities etc

It's really the horror of such long days that knocks me. This morning both kids were up and raring at 5.30am, we'd had breakfast by 6.20am and by 7am even they were bored of tv. Most families are getting up then & I'm already hour and half in.

My two have limited attention span, are little hyper (spend afternoon drawing - ha ha hahhahaha, DD eats the bloody crayons and shits out rainbow colours and DS draws for 5 mins top)

I have bucked myself up, I do know I'm lucky to be a SAHM, but still the holidays seem awfully long ahead of me

Yes of course, sorry, didn't think of that. I'm in the East of England so if you're there & want to PM me I would be happy to meet up. I have two children who are fantastic with younger children so if it would help at all. There is a Facebook page called Family days tried and tested that has lots of ideas on.
It will be fine but I do see that your days must be very long and feel exhausting.

Sorry, just reread my post - very patronising. I am certain that it will be better than you hope but it is daunting. Lots of running around? 2 or 3 parks in one day maybe? I hope you managed to find some local activities.

You weren't patronising all at, thank you for taking time to post

I think my problem is splitting day simply into two, I think I'm better off thinking in 1.5-2 hour slots. Going to try new routine next week, lot more parks (loved the idea of ranking them & smartie nature challenge) and try outdoor games e.g assult course with them both. I may even loose a few pounds!

I hated the holidays when my ds was younger. Not because I didn't want to spend time with him but because everywhere you go is so busy.
Parks, soft play full of screaming kids.

It's really the horror of such long days that knocks me. This morning both kids were up and raring at 5.30am, we'd had breakfast by 6.20am and by 7am even they were bored of tv. Most families are getting up then & I'm already hour and half in.

Op do you really believe this to be true, my own experience with my smallies is that they are up at the crack of dawn, everyone of my friends dc are the same, I was of the opinion this is the norm. I'm taking it that your posts are tongue in cheek and you're not silly enough to truly feel that your days ahead are "horror"?

Is the last post directed towards my post? Did I miss something?

JennyCalendar I love your idea, I am definitely going to Tesco for notebooks tomorrow for my two.
Some fab suggestions for what to do here!

I haven't read the entire thread it's very long, I didn't realise it was mandatory to do so. Or that if I seemingly disagreed with the majority I was some how at fault.

All I asked was if the op really believed early risers wasn't normal in most families, you're saying your dcs wake early too, are most of us not in the same boat. I agree some days can be harder than others but I disagree with it been horrific. As I said I'm taking it that these comments are tongue in cheek.

I'm glad some ideas have been helpful - your idea of the assault course sounds great!

My DS is only 2 (so is still at the eating crayons stage too), so I'm drawing on ideas from my girl guides!

I don't think water games have been mentioned yet. Have a running race with cups of water - who has the most in the bucket after 2 minutes?

Also, you can add cornflower to usual washing liquid bubble mixture to make sticky bubbles. Use string and a drinking straw to make a giant bubble wand and create huge bubbles (tip: lay wand in mixture, don't shake it).

Take air-dry clay out and make monster models using sticks, leaves, stones etc. pushed into the clay. Once they've made a few, if they like this sort of thing, they could make up a story/puppet show based on them.

Is there anywhere close for pond-dipping? All you need is a jam jar (perhaps a book on pond life from the library as well). Alternatively, bug hunting. Again, if they are into competitions, you can reward each found species with a sticker, and when they find a certain amount, they get a treat.

Really hope I don't sound patronising with these suggestions, just hope that they are helpful or can spark other ideas.