Terrible holiday parenting.

[LewisAndClark]

It can't be just me?

Ds1 (nearly 14) has barely left the house. He's barely left his room, actually. He's permanently plugged in to his pc. I've coaxed him out a few times to come out to lunch with us and he's been on one dog walk. Other than meals and the occasional family film we've barely seen him.

DD (12) has only slept here a handful of times, she's either been sleeping over with her friends or at Grandma's. Again, we see her for meals and not much else, although she's come on a few dog walks.

Ds2 (nearly 5) has spent the majority of his time in pyjamas watching tv. He's been out every day with me and the dog and we've been to the park a couple of times, but mainly he's been either playing in his room or watching YouTube.

I've just realised that between them they've gone through a large tub of Nesquick in a week, and god knows how many biscuits. They are all constant grazers, although tbf ds1 has a fruit fetish so we've gone through oodles of grapes and plums too.

Am I an utter failure this summer? Please tell me there are others who are as slack as me? It's not the idyllic, adventure filled holidays I imagined for them, but they just don't want to DO much.

It sounds amazing, can I come round?

DD has been a bit like this but I've planned play dates out which help but you can't do that everyday!
Don't sweat it.

You'd be more than welcome. Me and Ds2 are watching Thor.

My mum's had a bit of a whinge at me that we don't seem to being doing much, but funds are limited (we've already been out for two restaurant meals, the cinema and had a takeaway) and I can't drive at the moment. There's only so many walks to the park they want to do and with the age difference it's tricky to find stuff they'll all enjoy together.

Ah well, I'm aiming for 'all fed, none dead' and we're doing OK on that front so far.

You've described our house. We live in the UAE so the temps are hovering around the mid-40's so going outside anytime after about 9am is impossible, unless it's too a pool.

DS 4.5 has spent most of the time watching YouTube. I try and get him to the park or the pool for a bit, and on weekends we go to a soft play.
DD 3 has watched a fair bit of TV, but is still at least at the age that she's running around playing indoors a lot.

Sooo much chocolate milk has been drunk.

My 2 don't really want to do anything either.

DD1 (nearly 15) has spent most of the holidays in her room doing feck all. Went out with her friends a bit the first week or so of the holidays but is now just festering in her room - she says they haven't fallen out or had a row, she just doesn't want to do anything

DD2 (11) has been a bit more up for stuff, but she really just wants to play Minecraft with her best friend through FaceTime. Has had a lot of sleepovers with her best friend

We've had a couple of days out with both kids, and a couple more with just DD2. A couple times we've persuaded DD1 out so we can go out for fish and chips and a dog walk.

I've left them to it

Make the most of them not wanting to do much. Mine are the same! Though we initially did a holiday at the start of the break.
As a child I spent most days at home in the holidays and loved it. My DM thinks we all plan way too much these days and I agree expectations we place on ourselves are too high.

Today we are in PJs for most of day, possibly a film and reading bit of HPotter play. Maybe a PokemonGo hunt if we CBA to leave house. Bliss

Sounds fab.

We've been trying to get out the house as much as possible only because I go mad..not for their benefit

What about kicking the oldest out to go Pokemon hunting?

Gets rid of him for a few hours and he's outside!

He's not interested in Pokemon at all. He did actually go out with his mates for a Nandos on Saturday and we barbecued yesterday so he's seen some daylight.

What is it with the chocolate milk though? They barely drink it in term time.

Cos it's there?

Probably. We always have it in though, it's normally just DS2 that drinks it. No idea why the bigger two have started guzzling it by the pint.

Oh well, at least they're getting their calcium intake.

Me.
And DS too.

We used to spend 3 or 4 weeks on the beach and are somewhat fed up.
We've done a week so far.

I think more people do this than like to admit. We're just not the ones posting about it on FB

My eldest has a summer job which has been great, as I know that otherwise he would have spent the entire time in his room.

Ds2 has been out playing with friends a bit, but quite often he says he is busy as he can't be arsed to go out! Spends a lot of time on the Xbox but I'm also getting them involved in chores to help me out a bit more than usual.

DD spends a lot of time on you tube, but she is lucky to have friends here a lot to keep her entertained too. I work at home so I am not free to entertain them - while I am home I am not always free! They just have to sort themselves out, quite often making their own lunch too

DD's just come back with two younger friends (more ds2's) age so he's off the telly and playing upstairs with them.

I'm still watching Thor

Dd seems to have nearly her entire class building some Minecraft world...

I keep thinking there hundreds of kids in her room but it's her on her headset with loads of voices comming from the telly :-)

Still at least i don't have to feed them all '-)

Brackets fail. You get the gist.

Oh that's like ds1. He seems to be taking to hundreds of people in his head set.

I have given up now the first week was outings and crafts and "love spending time together" facebook posts. Now we've descended into pure survival mode. Every child, man and woman for themselves. Scavenge for your meals and make your own entertainment while I hide in the bathroom eating biscuits.

We have been out most days but that's because I can't stay in all day everyday. I need to speak to other adults some of the time or I'd go mad. I work term time only so yes it's lovely to have so much time off but I become really ineffective in the six weeks.

When we've been in all they've done is play on tech though. They're both still in bed, ones watching YouTube videos and drawing while still led down and the others chilled in his bed on the play station. I'm quite happy to let them get on with it, it's lush not having anything to do.

We're just not the ones posting about it on FB

Slobbing in the living room in my nighties.
Still in bed selfie.
Watching the Olympics at 3am.

Great statuses.

We've not done much, but I'm seriously limiting the screen time just for my own sanity, as the middle child is a foul beast when he is on for more than about an hour a day. He has ASD, so mitigating circumstances. If he could hold his shit together better when it's time to turn things off I'm pretty sure it would be wall to wall Martyn playing Pokemon Go on the TV, and build battles between Stampy and Squid all over my kindle :o

As it is we've done a lot of reading, and there have been innumerable boxes of rocket lollies consumed. There's a rumour of a trip to a museum later in the week, but it may fizzle and expire like most of our pie-in-the-sky plans.

Three weeks left. I can manage three weeks. I think.

It's so lovely and sunny here. I've drawn the curtains so we can't see my neighbour's paddling pool . 5yo is building Lego in his room, 2yo watching Mike The Knight on repeat and eating cheese in U feasible quantities. I was going to eat healthily today but somehow just ate five biscuits in a row (when toddler wasn't looking). Your post has made me wonder if I can be bothered to walk down to shop to buy chocolate milk which would bring untold delight to them both.

(We've been on holiday and had some days out. I had great plans for this morning but we are trying to move toddler to his own bed so none of us are getting any sleep and he was having exhausted meltdowns by 9am. I just can't listen to another tantrum so I'm going with unlimited tv and cheese. And dummies - at one point he had three rammed in his mouth all at once. Have sort of given up on even minimal standards of parenting today).

Park the guilt LewisAndClark - it won't kill them . We went away for the first two weeks of the summer holiday, since then our only outing has been the cinema. Mostly the dc (12 and 14) have slept late, been on social media / play station 4 / watched Bear Grylls programmes (ds) or Harry Potter movies (dd). Sometimes they don't get breakfast (slept too late) and they have to prompt me to give them lunch

They have both been over to friends a couple of times and they both have had evening football training and some friendly matches, so it nots all torpor and lethargy. We are off to the Edinburgh festival for 4 days this week so that will break it up, but when we get back it will be more slobbing around....

I think its fine - they get the school bus at 7.21 am during term time (we are rural) and not home until 5pm, and then have after school sports club, homework and weekend sports fixtures - its good for them to get a break

Sounds perfectly normal to me!

We've had a few days out. Ds does play outside and in park over the road. But it isn't a constant barrage of organised days out. I'd say 3-4 days a week we go out even if it's just a supermarket shop.

We fly to Majorca tomorrow and I know everyday will be spent to the max energy levels - so I'd rather he was in good condition to do that! That also means when we come home it'll be days of doing not a lot again to recover!

Op - Your DS14 sounds just like mine. We don't have any Nesquik - it wouldn't last a week.

Same. We've managed to get in a fair few days out, but it has mostly been routine stuff, out in the garden etc, a fair few 'film days'. The last four days I've been trying and failing to get them to tidy their bedroom! Back to school on Wednesday. tfft.