Do you actually enjoy the school summer holidays?

[KrayKray00]

Because I don't. I dread it. The thought of it makes me so sad

And I know it is a horrid thing to say! My DS only broke up this afternoon and I've already shouted at him yes, I feel awful about it I know I'm terrible

I have a 6yo and 2yo and all they do is bang, yell, shout, fight and bicker. They are so loud, the walls are thin enough you can hear a fart through them so I bet the neighbour hates me as it is.

We are going abroad for two weeks which I am looking forward to but the rest of the holiday at home I am dreading. OH/Dad works mon-sat and I am a student so I'm off too. I cannot afford day trips out to nice places, and I am even worrying about feeding them a mixture of food rather than a sandwich for lunch every single day without breaking a budget - 6yo is "fussy" no pasta or rice...

All the summer clubs are sports or arts related which my 6yo isn't a fan of and I've had to cut nursery hours back to one day a week as I can no longer afford it (whilst I am at home)

All the other Mums were really happy the holidays are here and I just smiled with envy. How?! Why?

What do you do to break the days up, keep them occupied? Do you enjoy the holidays? Surely I can't be alone

I'm hating them so far, and feeling very guilty about it. We all just prefer structure and routine, and I think it'll take a couple of weeks to settle into a new rhythm. Doesn't help that I usually have to wake the kids up at 7.15am for school, but since Saturday they have been getting me up around 6am! WTF is that all about?!

Six weeks just seems like such a long time to be in each other's pockets. I fear the 6yo may get bored and need more stimulation than my energy levels will be able to provide, and the 3yo is already massively testing my patience with his potty training mind fuckery.

Roll on September. I love my kids, but I love them more when we don't see each other for 15/30hrs a week

The trouble is, I have no trouble thinking of stuff to do, and the dds would be happy with loads of things, but ds doesn't want to do any of it, and is so put out by a lack of routine that he is just miserable. This isn't helped by having the longest of days (he was up at 4.30am, and is just starting to drop off now.....)

I'm determined to enjoy them a bit more this year.

I work full time and OH is a sahd so I do get to escape if only to return to an absolute shit hole but with five ranging in age from eleven to 7.5 months it is pretty hectic.

I'm going to lower my standards this summer, I will have to just to keep myself sane. We're not going on our holiday until October half term so there's nothing to break the monotony this year but a brownie camp and a scouts camp for the two eldest.

OH can take them to the park and the beach, my mum has a huge garden so they'll spend some time at her house just down the road.
They can have play dates and sleepovers with friends and I'll just ignore the detritus and go to work

I've got two weeks annual leave in September, ostensibly to seethe DS1 in to high school and DD2 in to reception but really just to regroup, sort out my house and have a rest

Not read all the replies, but I hear ya. I'm always terminally skint and have two kids who whine if they're not being constantly stimulated! Drives me mad! We can literally be doing something and then two minutes after stopping - "I'm bored."
After 6 weeks I'm ready to climb the walls.

You need lots of free or cheap ideas of things to do.

• a football/kite/frisbee and a picnic in the local park.
• Check your local library. Ours always has stuff on in the holidays, from craft making sessions to history type lessons made fun. (All free)
• swimming. Not free anymore, but if it's a council run one they're usually fairly inexpensive.
• Nature walks through forests.
• Going to the beach if you're near the seaside and collecting shells/pebbles.
• Depending on where you live, find your free attractions. We have the National Railway Museum and The Bradford Media Museum both free and easy to get to. Bradford Media Museum is an awesome day out - read the Channel 4 news, see Playschool/Gordon The Gopher etc and then finish your day off with a paddle in the town fountains.

For those that hate them, and love routine, that's how I feel about school. I absolutely hate routine. I long for the holidays!

That being said, I'm self employed, so I work around kids. Plus they are all superb at entertaining themselves, not very demanding, and great company. We're not even going on holiday, and don't have cash for expensive treats, but just love the freedom of organising our own days our own way.

Already they are going way too fast!!

Wow. How old are yours Gluteus?

Nope don't like em. I try I really do but they are such hard work. I work term time so summer should be my holidays too but it feels like forced labour. The constant need to entertain, the endless bickering, the complaining when I suggest we go and do something constructive - walks? Cycle rides? Would take me an hour to drag them out the house and then they'll be whinging the whole way. Days out - getting out the house= stress, parking=stress, crowds= stress, museums we are there 5 mins and they start complaining that they're bored even though they asked to go there! We're signed up to the reading scheme - they have read 1/2 a book and now said they can't be bothered. We can only afford one week of summer camps and that is later in august so a whole month away. We have one week away camping which is all we can manage and that is just like at home but in a tent (I hate holidays because of the drudgery). I spend my whole time wrestling screens away from them and saying no TV every 5 mins otherwise they'd be plugged in all day. The house is a pigsty - cleaning and decluttering is like painting the forth bridge - it's endless.
I do love my kids and there are glimpses of sun but they seem to reserve all their good behaviour for everyone else and I just feel like the punching bag (not literally). Before anyone comments - I am ranting on here as an outlet - no-one knows how much the holidays stress me out - on the outside everyone including dc sees me as endlessly happy, patient, encouraging, entertaining and #makingmemories but on the inside I am exhausted and withering - roll on September.

I'm trying to enjoy them but it will take patience, perseverance and planning. My two are 6 & 8 and will fight to the death if they could get away with it so my role is reduced to that of a referee atm.

We've drawn up a summer time table together so it's got a mix of activities that we all want to do plus a bit of reading and writing. We've signed up to the free reading challenge at local the library so that's the reading bit ticked off. I've made them write down the activities they want to do plus start a holiday diary for the school summer project so that's the writing bit sorted.

Try and get out of the negative mind set and rise to the challenge of the summer holidays. Yes it is busy, expensive and yes you may not feel like chatting to the other mums or queuing up. However, filling up your days with activities and people will make it go by more quickly and stop it from feeling so much like a drag.

Google things to do for free in your local area and see what comes up, pack a picnic and explore your surroundings.

We are doing a car boot sale with all of our old stuff which the kids are looking forward to because any profits will be put towards trips out.

Check out group on and wowcher for day trip deals.

Look on gum tree etc for free or very cheap camping equipment and go for a cheap camping weekend away.

We started saving £2 coins in those tin can saving cans that y out need to cut open with a tin opener. That will go towards summer 18 so I'm thinking ahead and saving extra for next year.

i enjoy them when the weather is nice! i have 2 boys 7 and 4 and a girl who is 1 so its quite hard trying to find things that they all can do and thats free! hate going to soft plays through school holidays!
some days tho i wish i was back in work, but im lucky that i get to have the school holidays off!

Can I just draw your attention to an app called Hoop which features kids events in your area. Obviously a lot of them are paid but I've had a quick look in my area and today there are a couple of cool events at Libraries - one was making animal masks and the other was Africa themed. I also noticed a Mini beast hunt in the local woods. Maybe worth a look? ( ps I don't work for Hoop!).

@SpiritedLondon thank you! Hoop looks awesome! (Well, apart from the fact most of my local activities are for age Up to 4 or 6+, and my kids are 3 and 6 )

GoingRogue - Mine are various ages, eldest is nearly 15, middle one is nearly 7, and littlest is 18 months.

I think they've always self entertained because I've always worked from home, I think that has helped anyway.

They were very very difficult babies/toddlers/non sleepers - but as children they are just lovely

18 month old is a pickle TBH, but both elder children play with him and keep him entertained!

I think I would be in the same boat with 2 children under 5 close in age. Kinda why I love age gaps! nothing to do with hyperemesis and SPD

I used to live in the park in-between work when they were little. We live opposite a huge park, so very lucky.

It will get better as they get older

Spirited has a great idea. We lived at the library events, museum, park, and little activities locally like pond dipping, mask making, all that kind of thing.

Sorry if it's already been mentioned, but have you looked at www.dayoutwiththekids.co.uk there's lots of free things on there as well as the stupidly expensive stuff.

Local newspaper for free events too?

Last year, at Easter, I took DD into Waitrose for a free coffee and found the trail map where we had to walk around the store to find letters to make a word. It killed half an hour - it doesn't always have to be super amazing expensive stuff to do.

My SIL set her kids up big time - took them out ALL the time. Every weekend. Every day in the holidays, they were doing something. Surprisingly, they are both now very demanding children - who constantly say they are bored bored bored.

One thing I do remember was, I'd plan activities in the morning, to wear them out and then they were very chilled in the afternoon so I could work.

Good luck! x

I know what you mean! I've been trying to get as prepared as possible for this year and have been doing a load of research about the different activities we could do... before they start getting bored and I panic!

I came across a really handy guide which had ideas from some really good bloggers and even I'm excited to do some of these activities!

You can find it here if you want to take a look.

I hope this helps

I’m a teacher but also have three primary aged DC so I take the rough with the smooth throughout the summer hols . On the one hand, I love not having to wake up at the crack of dawn and rush around getting everyone ready but on the other hand it’s soooo stressful.

Thoroughly enjoyed the holidays last year but I think that was because they went away for a week with my DM and DP and I went to Prague. Five weeks instead of six made all the difference and it was bang in the middle of August so split the holidays up well. Not so fortunate this year and I’ve been endlessly searching for things to do. I’m also 6 months pregnant so it’s going to be even harder, especially with the heat.

I like the idea of signing up under a pseudonym to FB purely to see what’s happening locally, I may have to do that. Not a FB lover but I’m seriously stretched for ideas this year as we have exhausted all of the local (and even not so local) galleries and museums and the park gets a bit tedious.

Hate them. I work full time and have to spread my holidays throughout the whole year, so I only get a week off. I pulled the short straw at work this year too and have to wait until the last week of the holidays for my break. It's just rubbish! Would love to spend more time with my children but it's just not possible

It depends on the day!

Today has been lovely, the DDs have had plenty to do, SIL came over for a cuppa and a chat and the DDs haven't been squabbling. If you had asked me one day last week though the answer would have been very different!

Generally though, I love being able to spend an hour or two mooching about in my pjs in the morning, like having the odd duvet day and enjoy hanging out with them.

I have mixed feelings about it. I have 3 dc 14, 4 and baby. Finding activities that suit all of them is a headache and now we are a little tribe I find getting around much more difficult. My eldest is getting the most from the Summer break I think and is better able to find something to occupy her if we have nothing planned, 4 year old is a different story and could do with a bit more routine etc. We are doing low key things such as picnic in the park etc. but we don't have a large network of friends/family to meet up with and this would probably make a big difference. I am a sahm and find that being with the kids 24/7 is a bit draining in terms of not being able to get many breaks to recharge and re-energise. I don't like wishing time away but I will be happy to see the back of the Summer holidays, with my younger children the ages that they are, it is just too long and I have always looked on pre-school as childcare support (obviously school is designed to educate but it also allows parents such as myself a break) especially as we have no family support.

I love the holidays (apart from the endless childcare juggling).

But I probably wouldn't in your shoes.

Do you have any friends in a similar situation? I have always found that 2 parents looking after 4 kids was much easier than 1 parent looking after 2 kids.

If my kids are bickering and I can't stand, we leave the house. Go to a playground, or just for a walk. Even in the rain. It would calm things down for us.