It’s the Easter holidays. Not half term?!

[StopitSarah]

What is this new craze for calling the school holidays “half term”?! I noticed it a bit in the Christmas holiday and now we’re in the Easter holidays I’m surrounded by random parents who refer to it being half term.

It’s not half term!! It’s the main school holiday!

This isn’t people with no children/grown up children either. It’s people with children currently at school.

If it was a friend saying it I’d ask them what the fudge they were saying. But it’s not - it’s parents at holiday clubs/out and about etc.

”beautiful day to be at the zoo isn’t it?”
”yes, such great weather for half term!”
me “??????”

Not people I feel I can say “it’s not half term?!” to because it’s just casual passing conversation.

But I’m also overheating it being called half term.

Phew. Please stop it if it’s you. Because you’re wrong. It’s not half term. AIBU?

@DancingWithTheMoonlitKnight I'm exaggerating but not joking. It's one thing if people are using it as shorthand in general chit chat... but on the radio and in official communications from school? GAH! It's just wrong. I'm with the OP on this.

Yes, I've noticed this too. Wondered if it was me so I checked and it's definitely the end of the winter term now!

Why?

Is it a kind of cultural embarrassment about the word Easter, connected as it is to a religion that many in this country don’t follow? And then I remember the masses of chocolate eggs in the supermarket and I think it can’t be that.

It is so bizarre people coming on this thread to say they don't care, or to berate the OP for not having enough real problems or a hobby, as if it isn't possible to hold more than one thought in your head at a time 🙄. If people could only post about serious, life affecting issues, Mumsnet would be a tiny fraction of its current size and a completely different website!

FWIW, I am with the OP. It is a recent thing for people to call everything half term, and it isn't clear why it started. It's wrong though. Half terms are in May, October and February, and we are not in one now. Annoys me too, OP. YANBU.

This is AIBU though, so it's fine for people to say they don't agree with the OP and they don't care.

For those who told me to get a hobby/life. My chocolate cake turned out great. We’re all very proud of it.

My job peaks in summer over school holidays and weekends. Asking about half term and meaning the between term holidays would cause a lot of confusion. We don't do stuff in Easter or Christmas holidays, we do sometimes have events in half term holidays.

@PuttingDownRoots absolutely. If someone told me there was a great cricket camp in half term, I’d be looking for information for half term dates. I wouldn’t think they meant the Easter/summer/Christmas holidays.

I'm with you OP. I've noticed it more and more recently too and it also irritates me. It's clearly not a major issue but if someone says "half term" I automatically think of Feb, May or October, so I have to do a bit of mental re-calculation to work out what they're talking about.

It’s called the Easter Vacation where I work.

I agree OP. I’ve noticed it lately and it annoys the hell out of me.

(and yes, there are obviously more serious things in the world to worry about, but that doesn’t stop this being irritating.)

DH still calls every holiday except summer 'half term' and after 10 years of the kids being in education still seems to have no clue when any of them are.

Definitely not half term. I live my life in school years - it’s how my brain is programmed and will probably continue after dc leave home 😆 only one term until summer, May has 3 bank holidays and a half term (which I’m on leave for) then just a few weeks to summer…. I hate my job currently due to management change so living for holidays and weekends 😂

When my DC were at a school if it was just a week off we called it half term.
If two weeks it was end of term holiday.
The only one that was given a name was the 6 weeks summer holidays.

Weird others have noticed this too. I noticed just before Christmas people saying half-term and that was from people working in a school!

Words surely have to mean the same thing as otherwise everyone will just be confused. Obviously, there are regional differences and words meaning different things in different countries, but not for half-term!

I haven't even got kids & it annoys me! 🤣

To disagree or say that they don’t care, fine. It’s off to suggest that the op gets a grip, hobby or some real problems.

It irritates me too, YANBU for sure. It's definitely a new thing.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Teacher here and it annoys me too! So many people have asked how I'm enjoying my half-term. It's the end of a term and is the Easter hols!!! I blame tik tok and reels.

Now there’s another thread talking about Easter ‘lunch’ at 6pm!!

What’s going on in the world!??!

Literally nope. Sorry. Crap human with bad executive function.

I don’t have kids, but I get you.

There are three terms a year. They are broken up by three longer holidays - Christmas, sumner and Easter. In between those, there is a (usually) one week break which is, by definition, half-term.

WTF anyone would word it differently is out of the realm of my understanding of everyday life!

I'm with you too OP.

I speak to education settings at work and discuss children's attendance. Some of them even get it wrong and mention a change in attendance at half term. So I confirm this with them as being in February (for example in the term just gone) and they will say no they mean the holiday over Easter.