Too hate the holidays..

[pansydansy]

I used to love having the kids at home during the holidays but dear god their killing me.

They've put me out of house and home.

The tantrums.

The shouts of "I'm bored"

The money spent trying to entertain them.

The day trips trying to sound all enthusiastic when your sick to the back teeth of seeing yet another pig/sheep/cow/ chicken/ horse 😩

The washing 😳

The toys everywhere.

The absolute mess until their in bed.

The fights.

And the worst thing is we're only 1 week down 🙈 feeling very jealous of my dh who's at work getting some peace and quietness 😬

I'm one of those crazy people who loves school holidays.

DD starts school really early so in the holidays we get an extra hour in bed and our mornings are super relaxed.

No uniform, packed lunch, PE kit and all that extra stuff to remember.

We both work so juggle childcare and take time off between us.

She is also easily pleased and we've set a precedent of doing simple things with days out etc as treats only. She's happy as a clam with a pile of LEGO and one of us playing with her. Also coloring obsessed!

The caveat here is we only have one child which by all accounts on here counts for a lot in terms of holiday enjoyment 😁

Sorry, I LOVE the school hols and totally look forward to them. Highlight of my year1

I love them, so does DH. Time off work, lots of time off school for the children, what's not to like.

Seems a shame do many don't, children are young for such a short period of time. It seems to be the ones who are used to having the day to themselves that moan when schools are closed judging by talk on the playground.

Not a fan, but that’s more because kids are everywhere and some parents seem to let their children run amok with no manners.

I absolutely love them BUT
I only have one reasonably well behaved child.
I'm a teacher so am off too
Ds' dad is very involved and usually takes him away at some point each holiday.
Can sympathise though, I used to teach in an SEN school and many parents looked hugely relieved when September rolled around.

How old are they? I'm finding the holidays peaceful this time, but expensive. The only times they poke their heads out their bedroom doors, it seems to cost me money. . . . (mine are 13 and 15).

I hear you. DD 12 has ASD and learning difficulties, and ds 7 can wind her up, and tease her when his is bored, like most of the holidays, I end up being a referee. I don't drive (learning and failed a test recently), so we are limited. It is expensive to go to attractions like theme parks. I have booked ds into holiday clubs for 2 days per week in the holidays so that he has other kids to play with, and gives me a break.

I love the school holidays and I get sad when the dcs go back to school. It's so much easier and laid back when they are off school. I am lucky to get most of the holidays off work but love spending time with my 3 dcs.

I do love them. The kids will get up and make their breakfast and I can get til 8/9am in bed!

Lazy mornings, pottering about at home..it's just so relaxed compared to our normal working week.

This week we went on one of those sun holidays to a caravan park for 3 days which cost £86. We took bikes, went swimming, walks, park. Was such fun.

Then when we came home we repainted their playhouse and did it up inside. So I've hardly seen them since we did that. They've played outside for hours and hours cycling their bikes, scooting, playing 'house'. Of course the good weather helps. I can't imagine it would have been as much fun in the pouring rain!

However I have all the school holidays off so that helps. I live term to term looking forward to the next holiday!! DS is 9 and DD 6 and yes they do bicker occasionally but generally get on well.

Genuinely don't understand people who hate the holidays. No school run, no need to rush. Time with the kids. Siblings together. Freedom to be at home or out. We have done very little this week and I love it. Park, garden, library, friends over. Dreading the end of the hols and back to boring old normality.
My kids are 5, 3 and 1, and I work part time and have a dh and garden (if any of that is relevant).

Phew, I thought I was going to be a lone voice! Good to hear some positive holiday stories too

Our Easter Holidays only starts today in this part of the UK!!!! At least most of you are a week in already.....

I love having my only child off he is 15 this year so growing up fast I can't have any more children so grateful for every moment I get with him .

Aw mate @blueskies....you sound like a woman I know who’s always making memories with her kids and lurves the holidays.

Helps she’s never had to work and her life is funded by her husband so she can take the kids out everyday or send them to play in her huge garden

Fuck sakes you do realise people have different kind of lives don’t you?

@ForalltheSaints he's self employed he's on his own. In peace and quietness.

I mostly like them but that's because I'm not a morning person so cba with the school run and rush hour traffic (I do work but nights), I dislike all the school admin, uniform, lunches. In an ideal world I'd probably take the family travelling in an RV and let them learn organically

I love the holidays but they are my holidays too. And, my dh is off with us as he is a teacher too. That doesnt mean my kids dont argue or drive me crackers, but I can share the load.

YANBU. I actually quite like all holidays except summer now my kids are a bit older but the looooong summer holidays fill me with terror. And the cost! A trip to the park every day really doesn’t cut it.

In fairness, any change to the norm is stressful. 🤷 We used to home ed, and people always used to ask why it wasn't hugely stressful like the holidays, how did we cope etc. But that was our norm. If I needed to go to the shops, docs etc etc we all went. I was used to it and so were the kids. They learned very quickly how to behave and how to entertain themselves.

However now they're at school, I have 6 hours a day with just a toddler. So now the holidays could seem more stressful in comparison to our new norm because I'm used to having all day to do stuff without them, and they are used to being entertained all day so could be getting bored

Luckily we haven't got that far yet...while they bicker like anything they're very used to hanging around the park, house, beach etc and big days out are exceptions. we do have English heritage membership which gets us into a few local places which are good for a wholesome day out.

I hate the first week of the holidays. I love the second week, we've all gotten into the swing of it by then and really enjoy the freedom. But that first week is a fucking nightmare.

I love the holidays. Time to spend with my own kids, who I rarely get to see more than two hours during term-time. It helps that my kids are generally very pleasant, even the ASD tweenager and the toddler in their terrible twos. They have their own, strong personalities, of course, but generally know how to behave. But then I've always worked very hard on discipline and instilling manners from when they were born and have ways of keeping them occupied without spending too much money.

I love school holidays. But mine are dd 14 and ds 5. So dd is no bother, other than lifts. And me and ds enjoy each others company and like doing the same things. Dog walks, allotment, ponies. He's an outdoorsy type like me.

But it's expensive and messy and hardwork. I work from home and try and do a couple of hours each day even in holidays so that can be stressful. And have had holidays when dd was small when the weathers been rubbish, we have had no transport and no money and it's soul destroying.

Just leave them to find their own entertainment. They are teenagers, not toddlers and if they fight (out of boredom or for any other reason) just kick them out of the house and leave them to sort themselves out there.

This is what my parents did with us and it makes you much more creative. Boredom is actually good for your mind. There were some studies on this.

I like to spend time with my kids but I do find the holidays expensive and they end up squabbling as they're in each other's pockets. It's cold too.
I have one DD who is a very easy personality. She can be happy for hours with jigsaw puzzles, Spirograph, drawing, reading. Then there is DS who is not happy for long with any of these! He needs to be taken out for swimming, park etc and then he can play at home for a bit. He has a much shorter attention span and finds being cooped up challenging so we've all got to get out.

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When my children were little I absolutely loved the holidays as it meant trading spending all day with 28-30 children of varying standards of behaviour to spending the days with my own two, who got on well with each other and were generally well behaved and easily managed. Now that they’re grown up, my holidays are completely and utterly my own to do whatever I like (but when my husband retires, that’ll probably be a different story)