To think this is closer to the truth about school holidays than we like to admit...

[Ubik1]

The Daily Mash kids looking forward to a carefree summer being a massive burden

I work ft and already my three have spent a week at 'Mrs Hannigan's cut-price boot camp.'

I'm lucky to have some limited family help and dp
Is self employed so flexible- but Swallows and Amazons it ain't.

What do other people do for childcare for six weeks?

I'm a lone parent and work full time. My 8 and 6 year old are off to one set of grandparents for a fortnight, then I'm off with them for a week. They are then off to other grandparents, then I have a week I can't cover before they are off again with me.

I'm hoping to use those silly camps that don't go anywhere near proper working hours and work from home. It's a nightmare.

Does anyone's offspring experience idyllic summer holidays; running wild, building plucky a character and solving mysteries?

My siblings and I had this minus the mystery solving.

Dad self employed and mother worked somewhere that basically shut down for summer (Dec) so we had 6 weeks at our beach shack. Running riot on the beach with all the other kids, bathing in the river, hiding out in sand dunes, walking around the rocky coast, complete with picnic!, fishing, gathering shellfish, collecting wood for the annual NYE bonfire. Learning to drive in the beach in a beat up old car or the tractor.

Oh I wish my DC were getting that too, their cousins do, but we live abroad. Very sad about that.

tough that's outrageous. I work FT myself and would never be so presumptuous as to ask someone to mind my kids for free. As pp have said, just reply saying 'Sorry, can't help but good luck'. If anyone asks why not rude say 'We do lots of family stuff and it only works for the numbers that we are (eg four people)'. Don't even offer a day or they will pester for more. If you turn them down firmly they'll bother someone else.

IME Sahm love the holidays, whilst working mums hate the holidays.

DD is 16 now so can look after herself. But when she was younger it was a nightmare for holiday clubs, I worked ft (8:30-5-5:30pm) and dh worked 4 / 5 night shifts 200 miles away, so DD got at least one week day at home. But I felt so guilty making her get up at 7am to go to a stuffy soft play when most of her friends were having good sleep in and getting to the spend the day at home. Not to mention the cost ($50 per day) I'm in the southern hemisphere so at least Xmas and NY break it up a bit.

At secondary DD was able to do the sports clubs from 10am-3pm as I had my own office then and DD came at sat there for an hour or so at work before and after the club.

I'm a wahm and part of the decision behind this was to do with childcare as we live 200+ miles from all of our family and my husband works unpredictable shifts. I really feel for families who struggle with this.

My dc will have a fantastic time for the five weeks either I, dh, or my mum is here looking after them. We live 100 yards from a beach though! A beach with rock pools and crabs and sand and hidey holes

There is also a local company which runs art classes for a week or two.

Oh I forgot about that! I used to go to a holiday art school for one week a summer while I was in junior school. It was a great, lots of fantastic art and craft projects plus we all used to have big games of rounders at lunchtime and have a proper run around. Loved it.

Me and my partner are shift workers, we arranged it from day 1 that we work opposite shifts simply to save on childcare costs.

Today he is working 6am-2pm then i will go to work 3pm-10pm. We don't see a lot of each other but we save a fortune.

Then we are both off for 2 weeks family holiday at the end of the school hols

I've been pencilling in on the calendar all the advertised summer holiday events local museums, nature reserves, libraries, attractions, etc put on during the break & virtually every day there is something on somewhere. At least every other day we'll go on an outing so the DC don't mind a day pottering about at home or a very, very occasional play date. SAHP though. I use the threat of a being put in a holiday camp to engender good behaviour from the DC!

Tough that's happened to me in the past too. I actually don't mind where the kids are friends, but where it's siblings one of whom is a friend of one of mine and the other one of whom is the same age as another of mine but not a friend, with nothing in common and the type of high maintenance child who will follow me about whining she's bored when all the other kids are entertaining themselves I'm not up for it. I had to be borderline rude to stop it happening as when I thought I was being firm but tactful the kids were on my doorstep when I got home from the shops and a text had arrived while I was driving, 15 mins earlier, saying the mum had asked her own mum but it was too much for her so sshe'd sent the kids with donuts to thank me

I like a house full of kids - but it depends which kids! As I'm not a childminder I only want ones who mine play with, making less work for me, not to actually have to think if ways to entertain other children while mine are pretty self sufficient!

Been juggling it for 30 years. At firs as we worked full time we had a full time daily nanny for 10 years and she had the schoolers as well as the pre schoolers in holidays. Then various combinations of holiday clubs - one had one at her school for 2 weeks each year which was lovely. The girls did a week away when about 9 and 10 on a riding camp once.
Then had someone who helped out on weekend mornings with the children who was happy to do extra hours in holidays so that worked well although of course expensive.

We have 8 weeks (pay school fees). Currently in Barbados....... but home tomorrow - private school holidays in England start very early.

The threat of a holiday camp to engender good behaviour?

How tactful you are - on a thread discussing holiday childcare.

tough It happens a lot, search on here and you will find lots of past threads on this subject and how to say no. I suspect your large car has a lot to do with you getting more requests than normal (three in one day!!). Of course it's up to you but don't let them take advantage. Email them back and say you'll do it for a similar number of days where they will agree to taking all of yours or for x amount each hour (except not legal if not OFSTED registered) ... I suspect you won't hear back from them. I never can understand why being grateful is a good reason to put someone else like out like that ... all they generally do is ask for more after you agree once and in term time too.

Yeah, but it works equally well the converse way round for some: a week with your bored & resentful parent at home or gadding about at a holiday camp with your mates?

So why the threat?

Well my oldest discovered a love of squash at her camp. Dd3 (6) loved dodgeball and will play catch for hours now. Dd2 perfected her cartwheels.

Holiday club wasn't all bad. I'll no doubt punish them again by sending them next year.

One of nicest things was how much the staff liked my children. They were disappointed that they wouldn't be back the following week.

As a teacher this was not a problem I had to deal with but now I am paying the price! Added to the fact my house has only a road between it and the beach, I am now the most popular aunt/godparent ever! Next week I have my niece and nephew, 8 and 6, plus twin god sons,7. Then I have two weeks away and then nieces 10 and 12, goddaughter 14, godson 12 and finally cousin's two 9 and 7. But I am looking forward to it. They will be able to sail, surf, rock pool and if it is raining we can bake etc. Because I am an empty nester it is as much fun for me. Sounds trite but I hope to really be able to bond with them all.

MOst of ours loved holiday clubs. They did Barracudas and they did one at their own school. The oldest aged 6 did her first riding at her club and what started out as one hour because her teenage principal activity which ended up taking about 10 hours each of Saturday and Sunday and even after graduating on her job assessment day she ended up sitting next to someone whose wife keeps horses so could chat about show jumping all over lunch - not sure if that helped as she can chat about anything (she's very chatty) but in some ways it all came back to the summer camp.

This summer (which started early - immediately after GCSEs) mine have been out a lot to escape painters in the house on 3 hour walks as we have footpaths and woods opposite the house and on bikes (one of them) and to play tennis with friends so yes I do think mine have a pretty nice summer even though we're just away on holiday for a week.

My kids have brilliant holidays. Their childminder takes them on really fun days out and they have a whale of a time. Obviously our childcare bill doubles for the holidays as normally we only pay for wraparound care.

I content myself with scowling at all the happy families I see on the train on their way home from fun outings.

When I was a kid we spent most of the time in the garden actually. Not as much organised fun as there is nowadays!

I was a feral child in the 70's Mum worked up the road so we'd go and see her then play at the park, wander about with friends, meet Mum at the house for lunch for an hour, then wander the village again in the afternoon. Then we got more into the horse, and spent all summer riding, she never knew where we were, we'd come home before dark. We'd have gone all over, up the hills or to the beach. We'd have a squashed sandwich in our coat pocket and drink water from the streams.
I'm not sure I'd give my own 10 year old that much freedom.
Dh is off so he's the main parent all summer. I work 3 or 4 days long days, and will take her here and there in between.

Are all holiday clubs 'sports heavy'?

Round here they seem to be. The DC do love them though, we use one that does a really good mix of activities, very gender neutral as well so the kids love it. It's at a local high school with its own swimming pool so swimming features heavily (I suspect there's a lot of playing rather than swimming lengths). Some of the others are very specific (an entire week of football anyone?) though.

I am very jealous of people who live in a local town with a fantastic museum that has an artist in residence who does arts and crafts days. We've been at a couple of the one-off events and the DC have made woven pots and treasure chests, but there is an after school club and a regular all-day club during the holidays (they are advertising clay work, printing and silk painting). They are much better than the usual 'colour in this sheet I printed off the internet with an odd selection of broken pencils and cheap crayons' type of kids activities you usually get. Really good quality art activities. They have a brilliant nature trail as well. We may be spending quite some time there on my days at home!

I was left to play outside all day, although I did also go to a local playscheme who would take us on trips, where we were left unsupervised in a strange beach, town or zoo all day.