To be pissed off at everything stopping for summer?

[Cyclemad222]

I have a baby and toddler. All the groups are off for the summer. Baby cinema is off.

What am I supposed to do to entertain these kids? I get people go on holiday, but argggh

Yes it’s so annoying there is so little on. The only one we have that is on in the holidays is a little soft play session in our leisure centre for under 4s and I don’t like to go to that in the holidays anyway as people bring their older children so you have great galumphing 8 year olds knocking all the little ones over. We are spending a lot of time at the park at the moment.

Yanbu
Even my favourite takeaway is closed until SEPTEMBER. it's an outrage

In my area there was baby swimming classes over the summer. There are bouncy castle days that have a baby/toddler section. Other than that I used to meet with the other mums for picnics in the park and days out.

Also just remembered the childrens centres used to run sessions suitable for babies/toddlers. If you're lucky enough to still have any - the Tories closed ours down

YANBU.

I find this too, and I'm new to the area so no friends to meet up with. I understand about school age children and their holiday clubs but I find it really lonely.

I'd love to volunteer to run a group, but DS is in a biting phase so I feel like I have to watch him like a hawk so I couldn't lead rhyme time etc. I always help to set up and clear up though.

@likeafishneedsabike - completely agree. The complete short sightedness of not realising how much the children's centres saved in mental health costs and the invaluable outreach programmes that ran. I remember a blind lady with twins who would be picked up from her house to come to groups she wouldn't have been able to access otherwise. My local centre also increased breastfeeding rates significantly. Such a shame to see the centres run down badly due to massive budget cuts and then shut completely

Your local library may still run things for little ones. Many do.

Agreed. My DD goes to tumble tots... Don't get why they have to stop for the summer. And our other play group is ran by my old church so I don't get why that has to stop either! I don't mind breaks now and then but whyyyy for the whole 6 weeks 😔

Then everything will stop again for xmas which is a nightmare. Especially for those of us who don't celebrate that festival - the world stops turning for weeks arghhhh.

Baby cinema is off.
What am I supposed to do to entertain these kids?

Surely that isn't for entertaining the dc anyway - it is a screening for adults, to which you are allowed to take your baby in ?

We've got two different places near here where the beach comes to the High Street (one of them) / local park (the other).
If you sign up to your local council's e-mails and your CC's FB page and your local community page on FB then go into your local library and look on community noticeboards, there is loads going on, but, in all honesty, a baby and a toddler don't need to go out to 'be entertained' - they can find fun in things in your own garden or a walk toddle round the block or a walk out to the local park.

We usually do six baby classes every week, and all but two of them are stopping for the summer. Gymboree and Sing and Sign classes are continuing here, so we'll be going to those, and also doing more open sessions at Gymboree. We also plan to do Stay and Play sessions at the nearby Children's Centres (we have four within walking distance, and they only shut for two weeks from mid August), go to parks, museums/galleries, tourist attractions like South Bank/zoo, libraries (we still have lots of them in our borough, and can also use the ones in neighbouring boroughs, and they have special activities over the summer) and general swimming sessions (as our swimming lessons have stopped for the summer as well). The Hoop app is brilliant for finding activities to do with young children.

I understand groups closing but what I want to know is why places - attractions, national trust, forests, soft plays, swimming, lido etc - STILL don’t open until bloody 10am!! The only place I’ve found that opens earlier in the holidays is the trampoline park - under 5s session moves to 9am from 10am as presumably the school age kids are raring to go by 10. My 4 and 1 year olds are ready to get out of the house by about 8am so whyyyy does nothing open until 10 😭 my little one (and a lot of kids we know) is winding down for a nap by 11 so we’re very restricted.

Once they get to school, you'll look forward to everything stopping in summer.

I imagine it’s quite difficult for those who have older children (I should have a 3-4 month old LO by the start of next summer) as I doubt many first time mums with small babies are chuffed at bigger kids turning up and taking over!

Around here, all still run. There are absolutely no free one though, they are all around £8 per session.
if its volunteer run, i guess the solution is to volunteer yourself? most volunteers will be busy in the school holidays

Totally agree
Have almost 4yo and almost 2yo. All regular entertainment for them - baby classes (art/dance/swimming/sport) not running. Soft plays full of bigger kids. No playgroups... gah

Try being in the same position when your child is 13 and unable to go to activities or groups or play out/ hang about with friends. We get out to parks, playgrounds and walks on our own but have to be in by 10 because of other children.

I'm in two minds about this, as others have pointed out the organisers need a break too. Last year I didn't have a car and when my local group finished for the summer I was really isolated. It's easier this year because my car is back on the road and I'm working part time so DS goes to nursery - I don't have the pressure to take him to groups for socialisation. But I shouldn't have felt that pressure in the first place really, 1 year olds don't need to be taken out and entertained by all these different groups, they're perfectly happy at home with a run out to the park or for a walk for fresh air. This ideal of taking them out to groups every day is a fairly recent thing.

I guess I've never understood why there's nothing that fills the gap, like 6 week sessions over the summer?

I think you’ve had some great replies, so probably get it now. I helped run a baby & toddler group when mine were little. When I had a 2 month old and a 2 year old so did quite a few of the other mums and we all took turns helping out in the kitchen and watching each ithers’s babies and doing activities etc. At one point there’d be a row if newborns lined up in car seats! If you value something you have to get involved. During summer there would be a break but informal meet-ups would happen in parks etc same tune as group. But someone has to kick that off. Maybe by next summer you’ll feel able to support and organise? Volunteer stuff like this only works if people who need it get involved with it too.

My DD goes to tumble tots... Don't get why they have to stop for the summer. And our other play group is ran by my old church so I don't get why that has to stop either!

Tumble Tots possible reasons: people go on holiday so classes won’t be full, venues are booked for other things so expensive, teachers have older kids to pay childcare for and deliberately chose a ‘term-time’ job, toddlers have older siblings who come along and disrupt/prevent parents from attending.

Church baby group: volunteers go on holiday, or look after their grandchildren, or same issues with venue hire & siblings. Churches often do holiday camp for school-age kids, it’s all on goodwill and people want to enjoy a break.

I think you have to really look ahead and search for one off things. Eg our local park runs craft sessions a few times in the hols, as does the museum and open gardens. lots of English heritage places do extra events and as others have said, libraries. It's not that there isn't stuff, it's just that it's out of the usual routine which you've probably worked really hard to get your kids into and used to so it's annoying. At home, if you have a patio, I recommend big chalks and 'painting' it with buckets of water and brushes. Keeps them happy for ages.

I co- run a toddler group at our local church, and we close for the school holidays because I have primary-aged children of my own to look after. Plus the team and I need a break! It’s not just the hours the sessions run for; another person and I have to go in to church the day before to move all the chairs out of the way and put out all the toys, then do it in reverse after the session finishes. We’re volunteers and the rest of the team are in their 60s, 70s and 80s(!)

We love doing it but are counting down the weeks to the end of term by July.

All the posts with ideas of things to do are great but mine is 12 weeks old. I don’t go to groups for him. I do it so I speak to another adult that day. I haven’t been going long enough to have a group to swap numbers with. Back to lonely and isolated for me

I used to run a baby and toddler group and exactly like you I thought it was really important to run through the holidays. Lots of parents who came said they were really pleased as there was so little on at those times and they definitely would come. After 18mths we stopped as often there were no people at all, or just one family and we would be arranging our days around the group, losing money and getting frustrated - and it wasn't just parents with older school age children. It was especially like this in the summer holidays when people just wanted to go out to the parks, and at Christmas when people we. So we stopped!

Surely you just treat groups as hunting grounds for friends? Once you’ve got your friends you are not reliant on them anymore and just go the park with your friends and all the kids. That’s what we did anyway.

The crappy weather hasn't helped either, too hot or too rainy.