The summer holidays when you were a child

[Thatcantberainsurely]

What were they like?

80’s child, 90’s teen here

I can remember watching ‘Why don’t you’ eating cereal, going out on bike rides and walking to friends houses and knocking on for them to come out. There were water fights in my friends street (cul de sac)
Aside from that, I don’t remember ever going anywhere really (with mum) or any planned activities/crafts/outings
So different to my Dds holidays 😂

70s born, 80s kid. Mum worked part time and dad full time and I remember having to go with her on work days and sit on a chair in the corner with a book and be quiet when I was about 9/10. She would also look after various grandchildren (my nieces and nephews) whilst their parents worked so a lot of my time was taken up entertaining the little ones and keeping them out from under the grown ups’ feet, though she did sometimes take us on day trips to the seaside. ‘Shopping’ trips for just myself and her also featured, with train trip somewhere followed by traipsing round a market or shopping centre, but usually returning empty handed as we didn’t have much money so ‘shopping’ consisted mostly of just looking.
The rest of the time it was playing alone usually outside in the garden (occasionally a friend would be invited over), or on the street in the front of the house, there weren’t many other kids as it was an avenue that was mostly shops. From the age of 9 I was allowed to walk to and friends’ houses to go and play, we used to entertain ourselves mostly and sometimes get up to mischief and go places where we shouldn’t such as an abandoned railway line. Highlight of the summer was the holiday to Blackpool, which was sometimes just the three of mud, and sometimes the whole extended family came- brothers, sisters, their spouses/partners and children.

us, not mud. my autocorrect seems to have taken on a life of it’s own (!)

@Seeline I was born in 1954, and your childhood holidays sound like a mirror image of mine. Happy, well fed and educated, secure in our north east home, but money was tight, no car etc. Lots of trips to the library, visits to grandparents and holidays being a week in a caravan or staying in a B&B maybe in the Lake District or North Yorkshire Coast. One memorable week in Whitby in a caravan where it rained incessantly, cows nudged the sides of the caravan and you couldn’t see out of the caravan windows due to condensation generated by cooking hot meals inside. My beloved mum recently passed away and to her dying day she still counted that as the worst week of her life! We laughed about it regularly. No car either….we went by bus. But other glorious memories of a B&B at Alnmouth where our bicycles went by train ( we got the bus) and we cycled the coastline in wonderful sun that week. At age 11, we acquired an ancient Land Rover and took a trip to Portugal driving down through France and Spain camping en route. This was so unusual my entire primary school class did a project on the trip. Life expanded and my late husband and I eventually did a world cruise….. that was just as a revelatory, memorable and happy as my childhood holidays, just different.

90's child, 00's teen.

I hated them as a kid as I was stuck in holiday clubs for ten hours a day. I was also at private school so the holidays were 9-10 weeks long.

I know that probably won't make nice reading for lots of people but I dreaded holiday club and absolutely resented having to go every single holiday.

As a teenager it was much better - I was home alone during the holidays from 12 and pretty much had free rein to do whatever I liked.

I think it's unfair to say everyone can just let their kids go off on their bikes and roam free all day to "be kids".

Frankly, in my home village, all our parents are still in the detached houses with big gardens backing onto fields whereas we have ended up in a (nice, but not very country living) townhouse on a main road. We have to do things as a more organised activity, such as driving to a NT or lake, playdates at other people's houses. I'm not really up for DS4 to go off roaming to the town park funfair that's there all summer, via the Wetherspoons car park.

90's baby 2000's teen - we were very lucky that my mum worked for a travel company so we had a holiday abroad most years, my grandparents also had a camper van so most holidays we were travelling to france and even Spain with them and meeting their friends and grandchildren. We were really lucky having mums parents very involved they took us on days out upto london museums and theatre etc. my grandma was quite forward and artsy and grandad was an actor so we used to hang out with their friends a lot, go and see him in shows. I used to go to work with mum sometimes and was paid to put brochures into envelopes which I thought was amazing! Went to work with my Nan also and aunty where we were made a fuss of.

As we were teens me and my brother would explore on our bikes and skates, go to the park with friends and get the bus to our local swimming pool. We made friends with lots of the children round our street and round the corner.

I also used to spend alot of time with my best friends family, went on holiday, cinema trips etc.

I had an amazing childhood. I hope I can create the same for my children however less family support and I struggle to afford the holidays.

Born in the late 80s so childhood in the 90s and early 00s. I remember doing sports day camps a few times with my brother, for a few days or a week each time, with cycling, some indoor sports and swimming. We definitely had days out, not a huge amount of them but we did go places, and always at least one day at the beach each summer. And we went away on holiday every year I think, usually to stay with relatives abroad (Lapland, if we went there we went for the whole summer and did lots of days out there plus lots of free range playing) or house swaps (to Holland) for 3 weeks. Sometimes camping in the UK.

Otherwise it was playing at home, in the garden, or around the church next door (or in the church if no one else was using the hall, me and my brother used to flu paper aeroplanes in the hall!). Lived on a main road so there was no safe place to play out on the street and none of my friends lived nearby but from about 9 or 10 I could go rollerskating on the pavements. Lots of time spent reading books. Playing cards with the family in evenings. Going to friend's houses or them coming to ours (and when I was secondary school age, hanging out in town). Playing on the MSX a lot too, so certainly had my share of screen time, but had to share with my brothers.

Loved the summer holidays!

I'm 65 and my summers were similar to yours.

Parents never even considered organising days out or whatever, though we usually had our annual week in Skegness during school holidays.

We were, in short, expected to amuse ourselves!

Down the beach or in woodland from early morning till almost dark in the 1970’s. I remember thinking Melanie’s Mum was overbearing because she insisted on her having 2 pence with her at all times so she could ring her in an emergency. This is from age 9. I would sometimes have my 6 year old sister within me.

We swam unsupervised, three children drowned off the beach that was about a mile away from my house so not my local one. It didn’t stop us. On one memorable occasion a lad got a boat and we rowed out to the sandbanks that were way out. Also used to jump off the sea wall and pier. Also loved climbing trees, I climbed my last in my early forties.

Evenings were spent reading in the Victorian armchair in my bedroom that was stuffed with horsehair and watching a little TV but I loved reading far more. We also played outside the house and up and down the street when Mother was off work, about 10 children of similar ages were neighbours. We used to put our small family dog in baby clothes and put him a dolls pram and run up and down the street. My Mother worked FT. I had an absolutely feral childhood and total freedom. Mother would lock us out of the house when at work. I learned how to climb up the porch and get in through the window. I put my knee through the window once so had to confess got in to a lot of trouble for that.

I was born in the 60s so childhood was 70s. We lived in a seaside town and we went to the beach everyday. We swam, played in rock pools and built sandcastle and a Woppa ice lolly cost 2p. Spent a lot of time at the beach wrapped in a towel when cloud came over. I think we had two holidays which were static caravan holidays and no days out otherwise.

Born in the 1960s with a twin brother. My father was a mountaineer so most of the summer holidays were spent climbing with Dad from being very, very young children in various parts of the world. Only one hour of children's TV a day then and Watch with Mother at lunchtime, but we didn't watch TV. We lived in the country and spent all our time outside with other children. No-one stayed in their bedroom to do anything - bedrooms were for sleeping only.

Outdoor games were cricket in a proper cricket field, Bulldog, Sardines , Fives, Kick the can, Blocky, rounders, Tennis and a long running detective game which ran outdoors all summer. Most of the kids in my tiny village were older boys so it was hard to keep up with them. They taught me physical bravery as did my Dad. No-one had much in the way of possessions. All you needed was a pair of jeans, a white t-shirt, clean hair, and you felt more than good enough. Everyone, boys and girls, wore basically that, or shorts. The sea was 20 minutes away so we would all go there sometimes - 20 of us. Adults never went. We had little kids tag along sometimes who we were instructed to take good care of.

There were no organised "playdates". The only people who went to "clubs" were talented people like County sport players or musicians. Clubs weren't needed. We went where we wanted. I cycled to my Grandparents at 8 years old - a 12 mile ride - once a week. Very few people had a telephone and they were shared lines when we did get one. All our mothers worked in some capacity or another.

Born mid 60’s, so early 70’s childhood. School summer holidays seemed endless. Played with friends in park or at their houses, out on bikes. Parents wouldn’t have known where we were.
If it was raining, watching TV.
The theme to Robinson Crusoe reminds me of school summer holidays, as does White Horses.

Do you remember Belle and Sebastian?

@VickyEadieofThigh We only rarely had "days out". I'm not sure it was even a thing, mostly.

Yes I remember Belle and Sebastian.
Love the thought of the dog in baby clothes in a pram.

Lol - I loved it. It was dubbed like a lot of programmes then.

Our local council did this too. We would go out on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday to different places and it was great.

Born in the late 80s, so grew up in the 90s. I don't remember my parents taking us anywhere really in the summer holidays except to my nan's house as they both had to work. We sometimes had friends over to play but mostly the holidays were spent playing with people who lived on the streets near us, riding my bike, building dens, roller skating, making 'magic' potions from water and flowers. We would maybe go away on holiday for a week somewhere too. I remember getting bored quite a lot but I did read and do odd little crafts.

There's such a difference to the way I'm handling the school holidays with my own children. I try and take them out somewhere a few times a week (soft play, swimming, the farm, etc) and feel like they're somehow deprived if we've had a day in the house in front of the TV. Mine are still little but I can't quite fathom the idea of them being 8 or 9 and just going out wherever they like on their bikes until dinner time the way I was allowed to.

We always had a self-catering UK holiday for a week. Usually Devon or Cornwall.

The rest of the time we just played out. From around 11/12 we just went out on bikes for the day and came home at roughly tea-time. Or played out in the street. Being bored and expecting to be entertained wasn't a thing!

80s child/ 90s teenager, in a Western European country. Checking with everyone whether they’d be away the first or second three weeks of the summer break- miserable break if everyone else was away different times from you (although later it became the norm to do 2 weeks at Easter and 2 in the summer, meaning 4 weeks at home in the summer).
Then spending the rest summer in the lido with those friends who were home (cost 50p for the whole day). Glorious days

I was born in 76 and most holidays involved watching TV and going out to play in the street with friends. We did have a few days out. Not remembered fondly for me as my parents used to argue so much, and a day out always lead to stress / fallings out, which they didn’t hide from us kids. So I preferred it when nothing was organised and I’d just call for friends. Kids don’t have to be entertained all the time, I take mine for days out but they are happy doing their own thing

Grew up in the 50s and 60s. Usually had a U.K. seaside holiday, which I loved, but apart from that, we just played in the garden - always had a big one though. No car when I was younger, folks usually pretty skint, we weren’t taken on days out anywhere, except occasional trips to cousins/GPs, none of whom lived near.
No TV until I was 11! So once past playing in the garden we’d read those quaint old fashioned things called books.

One holiday memorable for the wrong reasons, when I was early teens, was driving around Scotland (my Dm had never enjoyed seaside holidays, though to be fair we were always S/C and eating out for 6 of us was too expensive, so she had to cook as usual.)
I sat in the back, reading Jacky or whatever it was, and was frequently told to put that rubbishy comic away and look at the beautiful scenery!

I couldn’t have given a fuck about the beautiful scenery! BORING!!!

That holiday put me off car-based holidays for life.

Some kind of caravan/camping holiday, occasionally in a French Eurocamps site for a week, one or 2 day trips to somewhere like Wicksteed park and then the rest of the holidays was playing out in the streets with the other kids in the area.

Always a week or two in my grandparents’ caravan, building dens, swimming in the lake. Loads of time to read, my favourite pastime! Visiting grandparents and playing with their dog, sometimes allowed to ride my aunt’s horse if he was saddled up already. Calling for friends, or they calling for me, then roaming around the fields locally. Taking my baby brother out in his pram, or the family dog for a walk. Visits to Blackpool Pleasure Beach, when it was free entry and you only paid for the rides you wanted to go on,
70s child. Teenager in the 80s, so wandering around with friends in the neighbouring town, sometimes getting a bus to the beach.

80s child 99s teen. I was really lucky that I lived a 2 minute walk from Greenwich Park.
Hours and hours exploring the park having water fights, jumping in the boating lake, building dens, walking around The queen's palace and maratime museum, living of panda pops and Jam sandwiches, roller skating down huge hills,
We were extremely poor but I'm glad that the council estate I lived on was in such a nice area.
Also went to leysdown every summer and stayed in my friends nans chalet. I loved it there.