No thought has been put into the fact that DC are on school holidays - AIBU

[FatalDistraction]

DC are off in school holidays after being stuck in for months before hand. There is very little for them to do. It's OK to shop till you drop with a mask on, but opening places for children to play and get some exercise....oh that's just too much.

I just logged on to book some cinema tickets to have something for my DC to do. There is one movie, opening at the end of August and it is a 13. There are millions of DC off school, not going on holiday, with nothing to do and they decide to put a violent, older movie on. They could have rehashed Frozen, Trolls, put on some other loved movie if there is nothing new, but no, they think we all want to see Tenet.

No one has put any thought into the fact that DC have been off for ages, are on holiday with nothing to do and are going round the bend. But shopping, that's ok. It is no wonder there are children in my town turning on others in the parks when they have nothing to do.

Shame on the lot of them.

I’ve taken mine blackberry picking, cycling round the lanes, walking along the canal, with an ice cream, picnicing on the top of the local big hill, swimming, having mates round and just hanging out, in our garden & theirs. We’ve been to a zoo, and had a paddle boarding lesson.
Plus the normal MineCraft, films/tv and teaching ds (12) to service his own bike.
I’m exhausted and it’s too hot at the moment to do much else.

YABU. We haven't had the money to spend on expensive days out but so far this summer holiday we have camped twice (£10 a night) and are camping again, we've been out to the countryside, we've been to the airport and watched planes taking off, we drove to the coast to see all the cruise ships and done some river swimming. We've actually done lots of things that we wouldn't have done if we had been able to go on holiday.

There is no need for this summer holidays to have been boring. They can ride bikes, kick a ball around in the park and all sorts of things.

@FatalDistraction
So because there isn’t a film in suitable for your children you think the whole Summer is ruined and nobody has “thought about the children”??? Talk about entitled.

Gosh there are a lot of nasty posts on this thread.

It is a little trickier this Summer keeping them occupied. But I've found that's mainly because of having to book things in advance and I've been trying to avoid indoor activities.

@AnotherEmma

Also this thread has brought out a lot of twatty posts, predictably. Ignore them if you can OP.

No it hasn't

So you can't use the council run splash pads? Therefore it's too hot to go out?

Well they didn't exist when I or ds was growing up. We managed with a bucket, plastic cups or water pistols from the pound shop.

The twatty ones are the ones who can't use their noggins and come up with a simple and obvious solution that doesn't involve turning up at something someone else has prepared for your kid and someone else will clean after they've finished

I think you are confused ib the cinema issue.
My local one in London is still closed dvd they will all re open 21st august, with tenet starting soon after.
But they will be showing stuff in the other 20 screens, they just don't know what yet as it's 2 weeks away, and never announce stuff more than Tuesday for following week.

I would have thought (other than cinema) that most places where you'd normally take your DC during the summer would be open (I realise from this thread that this is area dependent.
With young DC you can get away with just taking a picnic to the park every day. Cinema is surely a "once during the holiday" thing, not everyday?

The group I feel most sorry for are teenagers who typically would spend most of the summer "hanging out" with friends. They can't go to each others' houses; they can't go anywhere in groups that requires driving to; they can't go round shops or sit in McDonalds/Costa/etc. with their friends. They literally have to just hang around parks. Where no doubt locals are complaining that there are teenagers hanging around and don't they have anything better to do.

However, most places do not care that our DC have been stuck in for months on end. They only care about profits.
I don't care about your kids either. They are yours to deal with. If you've brought them up to need to be entertained, well that's a stick for your back.

I would have liked there to have been more childcare/sports camps open. There are some, but they are £££ and often for reduced hours.

I understand entirely, but it's been a long and rather dull summer for my son while I work (thankfully I have wfh for years).

Who is ‘they’ though? The government have allowed cinemas and swimming pools to open but they can’t force them to and they can’t force them to show films that you’d like to watch. There’s no group of business owners that have got together and hatched a plan to make your summer shit. Buisness owners’ only priority at this time is protecting their business so that hopefully when all this is over, they’ll still exist.

There’s loads to do anyway. You just have to think outside the box.

I really doubt it's because they "don't want to pay lifeguards and cleaners while the government are paying them

Seriously? I think that's more than likely!

I don't think it's entitled to expect a cinema to show at least one kid-friendly film. Most have more than one screen so it's not that hard.

@Stinkbug are there 1 screen cinemas? it doesn't seem financially viable!

DD has been hanging around SD in friends gardens and running through sprinklers and chatting away whilst sunbathing. 6 friends in a garden (very lucky though friends have nice gardens!)

DS has been meeting friends in the park and has found a love for tree climbing. His clothes not so much

New Trolls/Frozen movie I suspect is due to the deal made on streaming and renting from home

Our 5 screen cinema has a good range of kids, older kid and adult films.

I took my son and a friend to see Batman last night. There were about 6 of us in the cinema. It was cool, the film was great and the staff said to use judgement with mask wearing. My nearest neighbour was about 4 rows down from me and to the side so I didn't wear my mask. I did wear it in all the shared areas entering and leaving the building.

Well isn't that sad. Poor kids are having a childhood like mine and every other child of the 60's and 70's. It was hell
Not quite sure who 'they' are or who you are putting the shame on but perhaps you could maybe take up the slack and entertain your own children.
Or even better show your kids how to entertain themselves.
They just might find it is much more fun than being cooped up indoors in the cinema or whatever.

My DS works at the cinema. He says due films being put back by companies they are just so limited on what they can show. Also some films are being put straight on to Netflix. Sure they can and are running old films at the moment.
I personally would rather have my children/ grandchildren doing something outside rather than cooped up in a socially distanced dark cinema 😊

They have opened zoos, farms, parks, theme parks , beaches and arcades.

I appreciate locally there is a limit. Thwres actually a drive in cinema in a field near us that plays movies like you have said.

It definitely depends on the area you live in. To be honest it's too hot to do anything today. But I guess you have to be creative and let kids be abit bored this year. What can anyone do about it?

Paddling pools
Bike rides
Movie night at home
Walks
Parks
Days out to zoos etc
Ice cream at the park.

Yeah it's abit boring. But it's best to just accept it is what it is. It's boring and it's more basic. But it's not forever. Obe day when life is hectic again we will wish for just a week of this again.

It sounds an awful lot like you expect your children to be entertained in a way that doesn't involve any effort on your part.

The other thing is that while the summer holidays might have felt endless as kids, they were 6 weeks. Our kids have been off school for 5 months. And most of us have been working. With restrictions lifting we had our hopes up that we might be able to have special day of some kind. For us it was biking to the library, browsing, choosing books, biking home, and suitably tired collapsing and reading. Can't do that. Can't go swimming.
I'm not especially bothered about cinema but all my family (DH and kids) are rubbish in the heat, pre kids we were on holiday and a heatwave struck (not a hot climate normally) - we went to the cinema mainly for the air con!
Kids (I include teens in that) are having a rough ride, and as parents we are doing our best to mitigate that.
It seems that things are different in different places - the summer holiday playschemes aren't open here, someone upthread said their kids were at one. If you are somewhere that is as open as is legal, it probably feels ok. When the news says something is opening, and it isn't in your area, you feel a bit mislead and frustrated!

@SleepingStandingUp

I grew up in the 90s too. I think we were the last generation to play out properly wasn't we. Not that long ago but we didn't have screens and activities booked in. We went to brownies and played out on bikes, scooters, at the parks etc. Between 7-11 years of age I was always out in fields and around my friend's house. My mum didn't entertain me. We played with the local kids. Was great.

I appreciate now the streets are tougher though and kids are plain nasty for no reason. I don't see my children playing out like i did unfortunately.

@notangelinajolie were the schools shut for over a term in the 60s and 70s then? I'd not heard about that.

My favourite memory of being a kid playing out lates 80's/ early 90's was going to friend A house at 10am and getting ice poles.

Friend b's house an hour later claiming we were really hot and asking for an ice pole.

Then another house after lunch claiming all innocence about not having had 1 that day.

Most stuff is open.
I took the DC swimming yesterday, all pre-booked and lovely.

Go karting next week, park and picnic tomorrow.

My local vue is doing a few films but to be honest 2 hours in a mask doesn't float my boat.

Took them to Costa for a cake etc on 50% off.

All beaches are open, theme parks etc etc

Spontaneous events are not an option but most stuff is open 🤷‍♀️

[quote Love51]@notangelinajolie were the schools shut for over a term in the 60s and 70s then? I'd not heard about that.[/quote]
Even if they weren't that doesn't change the fact kids could and did entertain themselves and find games to play.

Just because schools were open to limited students and most had learning from home for a few months (15 weeks of actual term if off the whole march to June from the physical building) doesn't mean they cannot play with a bucket of water or water pistol instead of an organised trip out to a splash pad.