To be dreading the 'summer' holidays?? (Light hearted)

[Floogal]

I know this is a petty annoyance so let's try and be as light-hearted. But this half term has been quite stressful. We live on a south coast tourist town, yet there's there is nothing to do when the weather is horrendous as it has been this week. Chilling out at the beach isn't an option, country walks aren't an option, going to the park isn't either. Town only has one swimming pool which is so overcrowded. The soft play centres are overcrowded and ds seems to be outgrowing them. We're not deprived but going on holiday isn't a realistic option either. So we end up cooped up in the house (not nice as DH is a hoarder) watching Cbeebies. Or we end up cooped up at MILs (I don't mind staying a few nights but DH wants to stay at least a week. MIL means well but I can start a whole thread as to why it's stressful).
Anyway, a number of news sources have suggested this summer is going to be the wettest for over a century. Fucking great (because most are wash outs anyway).
I think a lot of people underestimate how washout summers screw up economy in tourist towns.
Rant over!

Could you perhaps take a train ride for a day trip to a different town or city? Perhaps google to see if there are museums or something like that indoors? Sorry if it's a rubbish suggestion just trying to think of ideas.

Actually, that's quite a good idea. Thanks 🙏

Holiday clubs for 3 days a week is a good option to give the DC tons to do but still allow some down time at home.

It’s been quite nice up north - apart from Tuesday which was awful!

I wouldn’t believe the press - they are always predicting a heatwave / beast from the east when the reality is that they can’t predict more than a few days in advance!

Yeah I wouldn't be too downhearted.

My kids loved riding on buses or trains when they were younger. I spent loads on 'making memories' but usually the best bit was the bus ride home

I figured quite quickly we could take a bus into town and give them £5 to spend on tat in a charity shop and it was as good as Disney!

Look up Treasure Trails. Buy a map of a local town. Even if it's a bit wet you can combine it with lunch and a mooch around the shops. Chuck in a bus/train ride and that's a whole day sorted.

I would also calculate the cost of a day out and spend the same on a good Lego set.

Totally totally agree OP! This year I’m just going to force myself to take them outside regardless of the weather. Bikes, scooters, walks rain or shine.

Is geocatching still a thing?

I looked up "summer weather 2024" and go a mix of predictions from "wettest" to "excessive heat waves". I wouldn't but to much fath in the predictions.

Weather can really impact on summer holidays. The term ‘summer holiday’ is a bit misleading when you consider the amount of wet days we usually have!
I work now during the holidays and I much prefer it to when I worked term time only and had to fill the holidays myself.
Our school had a sports coach that ran a holiday club so I put the youngest in there for a couple of days a week even when I was off just to take the pressure off me a bit. The older 2 (now adults) were quite sociable and made plans with friends.
We aren’t a family who are happy to spend all day outside in the pissing rain, some are though. Even when they were all little, putting wet suits on and puddle jumping is fine for 10 minutes but beyond that it’s just tedious.
I used to get mine to create a scrapbook and keep it up to date so they would save up special school certificates, photos, stickers, tickets from things etc and then over the holidays they’d stick everything in. Helps contain ‘stuff’ too!
Do you have any cinemas nearby? A lot of them offer discounted tickets in the mornings for kids films.
sorry, not helpful but I do remember the days and we used to have a 2 week family holiday but I was still left with 4 weeks to fill - usually in the rain!

I used to struggle a lot with the kids behaviour in holidays and weekends when they were younger (we're a ND family and this creates lots if issues in managing relationships) and found having a clear plan really helped, as well as splitting the days up into sections. So we'd plan a film every afternoon at 3pm with popcorn or a milkshake/smoothie, then split the rest of the day up into sections (breakfast > fruit break, fruit > lunch, lunch >film). I'd discuss with the kids what they really wanted to do individually and together, with me or as a family. We'd then plan out so that everyone got to do something they really wanted that week(end), they got time separately, time with me, time outside. During a holiday week we wouldn't plan too far ahead unless it was a day out, though my kids tended to do better with only a half day out then a chill out afternoon at home.

We would go for walks in the rain though, just make sure we had the right gear, snacks, umbrellas etc. We'd make a list of places we wanted to walk, visit, games we wanted to play. We've only in the last year started to go regularly to the cinema - it's expensive so still a treat. Beach would still be great (I'd love to live near the sea) but I'd have to make sure I took enough for the kids to do frisbee, kite, bucket and spade, and know when to quit and head home. Playground hopping, library in town.

Sometimes we plan theme days and try to watch a related film, do some kind of craft activity, play with certain toys, make certain puzzles, make a Spotify playlist.

I only work term time so we also get into a routine of an evening walk round the neighbourhood or doing a morning exercise routine/yoga.

Favourite games here are bingo, uno, exploding kittens, triomino.

It's easier at home because we're in our routine and have all our stuff at home to play with/craft. Holiday is a bit trickier as we'll be in a cottage out of the way. I'm just stocking up on books and some DVDs now and will make sure the kids have enough drawing supplies to get them through the week.

@ssd I've never even heard of that until you just mentioned it. What is it?