To spare I thought for Northern Irish Mumsnetters

[Tryingtogetonwithit]

To English , Welsh and some Scottish mums please keep it in your thoughts that us in NI with school age children have our schools breaking up this week if they haven't already and shall not return until end of Aug/early September. That is 9+ weeks and it's pissing down. To be honest by week 7 they are basically feral 😂
I am of course joking (I think) but in a few weeks time when your posting about the 6 weeks please think of us poor sods already 3 weeks in .

No 🤣😂

All the ones round here (west coast) finished today

No more struggling to get in/out my drive at school time til mid August 😊

Pretty sure almost all, not just some Scottish schools also break up this week too.

Really looking forward to having kids constantly at the door for DS when I'm trying to sleep post nightshift when their parents chuck them out to play while they work from home, 'need a break', etc 😬

We are west coast too, South Ayrshire.

Glasgow all finished last Friday.

@gabsdot I forgot R.O.I had such long holidays,worked pre children in Dublin quite a bit and was looked over for a job there pre children was livid at the time ,maybe a blessing in disguise 😂

They have just had a heatwave for the last few weeks.

Jesus Christ I had no idea the holidays were that long for you!!! I've made a mental note to give myself a little slap whenever I think about moaning during my kids 6 weeks off

I’m in England and still no place. I’m very sympathetic.

@ThickSkinnedSoWhat have my sympathy so stressful for everyone involved.i really hope they sort soon x

DD finished primary 2 today. And I've already had her crying at the fact she's going to be off 6 weeks. She hates being off school.

Weather was gorgeous at the start of June while my lot were doing exams and heard many,many complaints about that too 😂 Fingers crossed it's dries up a bit and they entertain themselves at the beach and not hanging around my house with a various selection of mates.

Sure it’s always sunny during exam season - exam weather so it is. My lot are all away camping this weekend so no doubt it will be a muddy mess in Portglenone!

I really do love the longer holidays here. We used to live in the US and the 12 weeks we got there was a tad too long, although it did allow us a solid month back home in the UK/Ireland and still have time for a family holiday in the US too. 8/9 weeks is perfect imo - 6 weeks always felt too
short to me - esp when we had to try to fit in trips to visit families as well as a break for ourselves

Pretty sure almost all, not just some Scottish schools also break up this week too.

We do, but back mid-august so not the September marathon of our Irish cousins.

and spare a thought for the constant I am hungry and non stop kitchen raiding and unfillable teens who think nothing of cooking themselves a full on meal for brunch when you are not there to say no hence using the dinner ingredients needed to feed everyone else! Or who eat the multipack of crisps and all the biscuits in 2 days then moan how there is no nice food! We did discover that wrapping the leftovers in tinfoil and writing “dog scraps” helped with stopping then devouring left overs!

Why is it so long?

I always wanted schools down here to change to 4 weeks summer holiday and 2 weeks half terms.

Scottish mums are in the same position....raining fit to beat the band. Typical, the minute the holidays start....until mid August give or take.

We still get two weeks also over xmas, two over easter, a week in october and another week somewhere that I cannot quite remember ALONG with the 3 months of summer.

You lucky things! (I'm a teacher with chilled-out teenage dc).

Why would you assume it was a man?
My best friend has full custody of his two kids; I'm sure he'd not have relished the idea!

I will keep you in my prayers, my Irish amigos 🙏

Yep, I’m in Ireland . Day 2 of primary holidays and it’s pissing rain all day. Teen finished up over a month ago and has done nothing since. I’m working from home and it’s not pretty here today 😆 Camps for the younger ones start in a few weeks at least.

Nope anecdotally just from being on here it seems fairly similar. We also have much shorter school days in primary. I often read posts on here with complaints about school holidays in England and I think those posters would actually combust if they were to come over here

Yes! School finishing half day on Friday and I'm not sure how we're going to cover 9 weeks between us. Sending wine to all in need!

I'm in ROI. It was a shock to my system when I was in London in mid/late July a few years ago and all the kids were still walking around in school uniform. Irish children were almost half way into their Summer holidays by then.

I think English schools tend to have longer half terms than NI - a week minimum in England (ours always longer as school seems to tag on inset days in NI) vs a few days in NI and maybe none in the summer term?

Im from NI now living in England and we visited my family over our half term. It was a GREAT time to visit as my kids were off for a week and all the NI ones were in school, so we had the run of all the places we visited.