Days out, wanky names, and whining kids

[Tonightsthenight91]

I know ibu and this is a light hearted ish thread. Feeling riled after yesterdays and todays outings.

yesterday went out to a popular attraction with my DC. Very busy with it being last day of summer holidays for most. Today to a local park, some schools have gone back near us and some haven’t.

Both times - EVERYWHERE there were kids crying, whining, parents flustered, kids having tantrums and/or injuring themselves. Sometimes I take a step back and observe scenes like these and think WHY do we do it to ourselves? It seems the vast majority of parents are stressed up to their eyeballs on days out with kids that can’t seem to be pleased. Watching parents struggle whilst sun cream gets slapped on, soggy picnic sarnies, ice creams attracting wasps.

Then there’s the insta mum brigade trying to keep everyone picture perfect for photo shoots getting worked up when their kids aren’t Co-operating shouting at their oh-so-uniquely-named kids to pose/keep clean/don’t go in the mud/hug their sibling. Ugghhh it’s draining to even overhear never mind be in it!

every time kids are around I’m silently cringing at the “unique” name trend some parents seem to be on. Do people not realise the more unique they try to sound they ironically appear more common in the try hard to be different group?! Some that stood out to me were “kitch” 3 siblings called “blue beaux and B” “winter” “Adonis” and the best of all “darling dolce” 🙃

I know iabu I’m just grumpy after a long 6 weeks and sick of having to do child friendly stuff every day. Roll on Wednesday when my DC are back 😂

Not sure why OP keeps insisting the middle sibling's name had to have been spelled with an X. As though Beau isn't a perfectly normal name.

and no she wasn’t pronouncing the X but how else do you spell it?

🤦‍♀️

Beau Biden
Beau Brummell
Beau Bridges

3 well known examples all spelling it the singular way. (With an x would be plural).

Interesting sidenote that they all have alliterative surnames.

@Eastie77Returns you really do need to calm down or your child will end up scared of dogs.

😏

I used to live in South Africa and the school year was split into four even terms with more-or-less even holidays in between. I think the summer holiday was a little longer. It was so much better than the UK system. The terms didn't feel too long and the holidays were a nice length.

South Africa 2023
Term
Duration
Number of days
1
(16) 18 Jan - 31 Mar
53(55)
2
12 Apr – 23 Jun
53
3
18 Jul – 29 Sept
54
4
10 Oct – 13 (15) Dec
47 (49)
1 more row

I’m perfectly calm thanks😬

My children are not scared, they generally like animals. They just don’t like random dogs running jumping on them. Pretty reasonable imo.

This need for down time can be argued for just about anybody (overworked single mums included). As I said, I feel the summer holiday is too long and the original idea was for school children to be release to help with harvest in an agricultural based society... most children nowadays have plenty of time to "relax" with their iPad / phones after school, on weekends, all the regular and school holidays, I seriously don't see why they need 6 weeks? With rare exceptions, no working adult has that amount of holiday and many have extremely stressful jobs with long hours. Unless you have family to help, it is impossible to cover the entire summer holidays with your annual leave. If we are to thrive as a society, we need to be sensible and balance the need of parents with that of the kids'. That is my intuition and if you don't agreed, it's fine. I have no more to add to this discussion.

@Palindrone

Ember is a beautiful name.

THAT is a matter of opinion. 😬 Sounds too much like 'member.' (as in willy) IMO.

Well, obviously.

When I think of the name I picture the flame-red hair of my friend's daughter Ember, not willies.

@veggie50 plenty of parents (me included) look forward to the long summer holiday for the break in all the school crap and a chance to hang out with our kids. So your opinion is really ‘I think the system should change to suit me and some parents, to the detriment of the teachers and most importantly to the detriment of the children. I don’t care about all the other parents. I want more free childcare.

most children nowadays have plenty of time to "relax" with their iPad / phones after school, on weekends,

I completely disagree, based on my DC schedule, and also, that's far from my definition of 'relaxing'.

(And note - in Ireland it's 8 weeks summer holidays for primary schools and at least 12 for secondary schools - so even longer than the 6 weeks!)

the original idea was for school children to be release to help with harvest in an agricultural based society..
I doubt that's true, really.

In Ireland, when that would have been a need, most children didn't go to school beyond 12.

Equally harvesting didn't take weeks & weeks.

And finally, there were always urban, non-agricultural settings.

I seriously don't see why they need 6 weeks? With rare exceptions, no working adult has that amount of holiday and many have extremely stressful jobs with long hours.

They are children, not adults.

School holidays are a challenge, for parents, as I said. I've no help with childcare and it was a struggle to occupy my younger teens / preteens (thankfully 16 yo was working & running sports camps, so mostly occupied).

But they are for children, in their childhood, to have breaks from the routine & rigour of school. If they are lucky, the summer provides them with time for camps, family holidays, hanging out with friends, days of boredom (important too!) Unfortunately not all families can manage all of this, of course

This need for down time can be argued for just about anybody (overworked single mums included). As I said, I feel the summer holiday is too long and the original idea was for school children to be release to help with harvest in an agricultural based society... most children nowadays have plenty of time to "relax" with their iPad / phones after school, on weekends, all the regular and school holidays, I seriously don't see why they need 6 weeks? With rare exceptions, no working adult has that amount of holiday and many have extremely stressful jobs with long hours. Unless you have family to help, it is impossible to cover the entire summer holidays with your annual leave.

Let's start by bunking the urban myth about harvest. Even in 1870 the majority of children lived in towns and cities. Not in the countryside dealing with harvest.

School term starts in autumn as parents were more likely to send kids somewhere warm and dry than for them to be working with them doing whatever they were doing, mills, factorys, construction trades, mines.

Yes it's no longer acceptable to take kids to work. But we don't expect the government to provide 5 days childcare straight from the maternity ward either. Why do you expect it for school aged children?

America gets round the issue by having an whole industry set up to provide summer camps for school kids. Which works because they have very long summer holidays. It's hardly worth setting up a business for 6 weeks trading.

Parents have children it is up to them to look after them either by reducing hours, or by paid childcare. It shouldn't be down to schools.

Agree or at least given a choice in length.

As a child I thought summer breaks were too long and grew up with about 12 weeks. I begged my parents to let me go to summer school because I could easily relax when I get home as I did during the school year. Both my parents worked so didn’t make sense to me why I couldn’t go to school as usual.When I went to uni, I chose to do year round schooling and enjoyed it.

My children enjoy school and don’t like the breaks especially my oldest who is autistic and hates the change in routine which upends everything because he refuses to get into his taxi for weeks after. Many children like/need the routine and structure that school gives them. I agree teachers need breaks but I doubt there aren’t teachers who may/would want to work the summer even for a few weeks.

@Malapataraso what a strange thing to say.....Winter - good name for a black child but trashy for a white child....what about Autumn or summer?

Harlow as a name ?? Well you wouldn't use it if you've been to Harlow.

@phoenixrosehere Schools can't operate by giving people a choice in lenght of school holidays.
How can a teacher teach a class when they have different lenghts of holidays?

Massive difference between having 12 weeks and just 6. The UK has very short holidays, compared with most of the developed world. I often think 8 weeks would be a more balanced time, even if it means ditching some of the time of the Christmas holidays and some of the random days during the year.

You don't say if you are in the UK, how long are your kids school holidays now?

Children are in the UK, grew up in the States. Due to the length in the States, there are choices for the length of time between 4-9 weeks of different summer programs and classes no different than what you would get from doing an adult education program here.

Never mind the fact that more than half the country couldn't afford to send their kids to summer camp!

I've heard about US summer camps and schools but don't know much about them.

Who pays for it?
Are they like sports camps?
Do they do academic subjects?
Are they run by teachers or other people?

Guess we're just not all as great as you op

Some that stood out to me were “kitch” most likely a nickname.

3 siblings called “blue beaux and B”
Blue isn't to my taste but it's not unique. 30 or so a year. Presume beaux is pronounced Bo? Not bew-ux? Beau isn't much out of the top 100. B is likely a diminutive.

“winter” swinging well up the popularity charts.

“Adonis” ok it's hideous, I'll concede that one. Poor kid destined to not live up to it or to feel he must.

“darling dolce” maybe she uses the affectionate darling as a way to hold back the frustration inside. Like let's remind myself I do love her even though she's licking that stranger.

Just had a baby and his name is Tristan. His name
is probably the most traditional in the baby groups. I also reckon this is because I’m 39 and if I had been in my 20ies, I wouldn’t have had that much sense and called my baby Honey or something along these lines. I can easily see how you come up with those names when you’re younger.