Anyone feel like they didn’t do enough with their kids over the Easter hols compared to their friends?

[Springandsummerarecoming]

Both my youngest two have friends who are out and about every single day. Day trips here and there. One of mine has only had a couple of days with friends at the local park. The other has had an hour at the trampoline park with a friend too. That’s it. It just doesn’t compare to their friends who have had weekends in London etc etc. just feeling a bit fed up really although my kids don’t really know any different anyway.

I think it's easier to find cheap or free activities for small children than for teens. Once they get older they do start to compare what they have/do with others and social media means they can see what their friends are doing. Entertaining teens is expensive - they've done the free museums and picnics in the park. They want theme parks and trips away and that is hard when everyone has limited time off work, expensive petrol and electricity bills and the cost of living is getting more and more expensive.
I took my 2 dc for breakfast at a café yesterday and that was nearly £30. Many people just don't have lots of money to spend right now

Ha! This thread 🤦🏻‍♀️ So many people hard of comprehension.

‘Pathetic’ if you point out lots can be done for free. Told I’ve spent lots on activities when I haven’t mentioned cost. Apparently my kids are at private school because they had 3 weeks off - except they didn’t and I haven’t said this anywhere. They’re certainly not! Seems there are lots of goady posters out today…

@OP - don’t feel bad or guilty. Do what suits you but remember there is a lot out there that can be done low cost or with minimal cost or vouchers etc. You need to work out if it’s money or motivation stopping you.

We did lots last week and something every day over the long weekend but this week we haven’t done anything exciting at all. I’ve mostly let DC chill out on games and I’ve been catching up on cleaning jobs. If you asked them what they did over the holidays they’d probably just say played games rather than the million things we did last week…

I would suggest the families out every single day are avoiding some kind of problem at home. Either a troublesome atmosphere or their kids can't entertain themselves and therefore cause issues.

Some school holidays will be busy, some less so. They can't all be. Cut yourself some slack.

@Foolsrule wow how do you think your post has made the OP feel. Maybe keep your amazing Easter holidays to yourself ???

It’s ok. This is what I’ve encountered with the kids friends. No one has been abroad but there has been weekends away and tons of days out at farms, adventure parks, theme parks etc. literally the kids get up and have a new adventure every day. Oh well. I’m over it now. I think haha

I actually thought the other poster made a good point....there's plenty can be done on a very tight budget. We both work full time, I'm doing a full time degree plus we have two small children. So we really do try and make the most of Bank Holidays to do stuff together as a family, I wouldn't judge anyone who spent time at home chilling, watching movies, playing computer games etc That sounds blissful!! So relaxing.
But I wouldn't judge people who do it differently either - I'm certainly not trying to escape an unhappy home! Lol. Just enjoy days out with the kids and husband.

We did Fish and Chips and some Easter crafts on Good Friday (crafts from Home Bargain so less than £5), Forest Easter Trail on Saturday with adventure playground with friends (cheap picnic and parking), Easter Sunday Easter Egg Hunt (again some Home Bargains cheapies) special meal and made chocolate strawberries (90p for two huge punnets! Chocolate left over from Easter) then a local Wetlands Park on Monday with a Lego Trail - (I have Annual Membership for £2.80 per month, kids are free and Grandparents brought all the picnic so completely free).

So full weekend of Easter stuff with practically zero extra money spent.

The thing is, people will only post their interesting activities on social media. Photos of children on devices or their parents working (both of which there will have been plenty of) wont go on there. So it’s easy to think that everyone is out doing amazing things every day.

There seems to be an assumption here that everyone gets the Easter holidays off work. I assume, if they also have to cover the various half terms, Christmas, INSET days and the summer holidays, that they don't. And if you are working you can't do all these exciting things with them, they'll have to stay at home and entertain themselves if old enough or go to holiday clubs/relatives if not.

I don’t understand this need to compare. We were supposed to travel up to another country but couldn’t due to covid. We all still had a fantastic Easter. We didn’t do much at all but we don’t need much.

Those that went on days out and holidays where did you go?

In our case, we went to the woods for one day, the zoo another, local museum/farm, central London/grandparents, visited some friends who live on the other side of town. Dc only had one week off. We live in London so most of that was free, got a membership for the zoo. We only paid for the travel and snacks while out.

We were stuck in with Covid for the best part of the first week. The rest of the holiday we've spent having lazy mornings, some chill days and trips to a few local parks. We're going to the cinema tomorrow. That's as exciting as it gets but he loves going to the parks and they're free 😁.

This Easter break we didn’t have no holidays, visits booked or plans 😁, I had time off work and I decided for the first time in a really long time I wasn’t stressing myself organising everything down to a t and spending a lot of money and all that comes with it like waking kids early to be somewhere, remembering everything we are going to need etc, and was just going to roll with it, without meaning to it fell that we’ve done one day in then one day out, one day in one day out and so on all break long.
We've had a great break, all enjoyed our days out but equally enjoyed our days in just as much, children are 4,7 and 14 and it’s been lovely busy days and chill days the kids have loved the lay ins on days we have stayed in and our take away nights and films and so have I 😊.

Yes it is! I say this to my DC sometimes, they have to realize that life isn't non stop entertainment.

I’m one of those parents that’s been doing a lot. But for me I took a week off work so want it to feel for us it’s a little holiday. I also remembered holidays as a child and the magical mystery tours my grandmother would take me on and All the memories made. My child is also very active and sitting at home would bore not only him but me, however if your children aren’t Ns you all enjoy more chill time and arts and crafts At home then that’s what works for you but try not to compare yourself. 1 week in London with his grandmother and a week is out and about And he goes back to school with so much exposure, that’s how we are as a family with. Day here or there crafting or playing toys at home but that’s our thing and I find playgrounds soooo boring I want to gauge my eyes out lol so it’s as much for me as him

45 -thanks for reply.

Make & yeside - where did you go on your days out?

Been on one day trip,been swimming once,climbed a small local mountain once,been to park once,having a sleepover here tonight.

The role of a parent as children’s entertainer is a fairly new idea. Traditionally children used to just play whilst parents did chores all day( before the invention of mod cons). Arguably children aren’t any happier.

Comparison is the thief of joy. You need to either remove yourself from social media for a while or stop paying attention. Mine went to the cinema three times, twice with their dad and once with me. They also did an Easter event at an adventure park and enjoyed that. They did this at the weekends, during the week they were with me and I have a 7 month old baby too so we were at home lots or in the garden, out for walks around the estate and at a local park. I did a bit of baking with them and got them involved with making their own dinner on a few days. I didn't post any of it on social media.

DD went to holiday club all last week. We did a family trip to a small museum and a funfair at the weekend and basically just rested for the bank holiday days as we were all knackered.

She was at her Nan's Tuesday and Wednesday and she's entertaining herself yesterday and today because DH and I have to WFH and she said she didn't want to go to holiday club this week. I'll probably take her to McD down the road for lunch.

So in terms of trips and treats she's had a museum and a funfair. The rest has been various cobbling together of childcare stuff while we work.