Anyone else had a rubbish school holidays?

[Blueybanditbingochilli]

Namely because of:

1. The fucking WEATHER. No doubt I will be piled on telling me to buy puddle suits and ‘crack on’ but it’s been absolutely miserable and I will not hear otherwise. We haven’t been abroad, we don’t have nearby family to visit and we don’t have good inexpensive indoor local attractions so every rainy day (which has genuinely been most days) has been SHIT and we have gone out of our minds with boredom.
2. The age of my children (5 and 17 months), an ENDLESS treadmill of toilet visits, nappy changes, meals, naps, drinks before doing the lot again. They can’t be left alone together as they fight and wind each other up so to even go for a piss I have to strap the youngest, screaming, into his pram while the oldest desperately tries to get to him to cause more havoc.
3. My youngest has been ill on and off after starting nursery all summer with croup, ear infections, whooping cough and HFM, so on top of the rainy days we have also spent ‘ill’ days sat bored out of our skulls in the living room which I swear one day will be the purgatory I spend my afterlife in.

Not interested in smug stories about puddle suits, impeccably behaved children with fabulous immune systems or those who ‘love the cooler weather’. This is a rant thread for those who can relate to my position and nothing more. Roll on school!

My DS5 is very similar OP - I will firmly say, it's 7am, just let me drink this coffee in peace, and will give him something to do, but it's still just look mummy look look look look at this until I do, or he will start asking where the tallest tree in the world is and where the second tallest tree is... If I go up to make the bed he is running up the stairs after me within 10 seconds. We had grandparents as childcare (not elderly) and both said they had to tag team it to keep up with him!

Yeah same really. I don't think the weather has been as bad as some years but I feel we haven't done much. Everything is so expensive.
My daughter (6) is hyper now and is currently bored and hanging off my neck.
Looking forward to back to school x

Our lovely dog died very unexpectedly on the first day of the holidays and it's made the whole break seriously shit.

This summer has actually been much better than last years. I'm in the SW & the weather had been better; longer spells of dry warm weather, & only occasional rain.
Last year we had D&V & just pretty constant rain till the last week of the holidays when it was stupidly hot.
We've had some rain this week, but not as much over the whole of the holidays.
Consequently we've been able to go out & do stuff outside - picnics, beach days, walks etc so it's felt much better.
Plus my DC are now 10 & 6, & I definitely feel it's been easier as they've got older. They still bicker, whinge & argue but with less of the tantrums, accidents, bum wiping etc!

Don't know what part of the country you live but it's been a pretty good summer here! A few days rain at the start of July (before the kids got out) but since then all I seem to do is water my garden and it has been sooo hot!
The age of your kids is tricky, and you did seem to have been unlucky with illnesses. But while it can get tedious that's life.

You must be near me. I vividly remember scrambling around for school shorts in the shops at the end of August last year, because DS's first day of reception was about 33 degrees!

I understand...my dc are older now and we did get a holiday this year but we have had many many summer holidays as you're describing! No trip to break up the monotony, crap weather, trying to think of things do to. It was often an endurance test!

@Blueybanditbingochilli my daughter is exactly the same. She's 4. It's relentless. My every move is questioned, along with her asking all the other questions on top of it. It's 12 or 13 hours of this and then at the end of day she begs for playtime before bed and I just have to say no, I'm utterly, mentally fucked. I literally cannot continue. Then I feel awful and that something must be wrong with me for me not to be able to cope with this. The 7 year old also buts in on conversations and interrupts and has held a piece of cardboard between me and my husbands face when we talking. If you tell them to stop talking whilst you are speaking they sit there and start crying. They also both regressed with their continence. There is wee and poo constantly and I'm just so burnt out.
I even turned up at work when I had the day booked off because my head is trashed!

DD decided she doesn't like her 'best friend' anymore which has been totally awkward. I don't want to lose my only real mum friend so I've been making rubbish excuses not to meet up. Can't afford any decent days out. Done a couple of nice days at the zoo and some soft play days. But I always have to be involved in the soft play. Days out generally ruled by finding a toilet for DD. Weather has been ok. I'll be glad when DD starts schools. Although I'm dreading the morning tears....

I feel the same, I’m a horrible shouty mum at the moment because 12 hours of constant questioning, demands, screaming, being followed around and climbed on while it pisses with rain outside for weeks on end has worn my patience down to nothing. The cardboard thing made me snort but I also know how infuriating it is, DD once climbed on me and actually put her hands over my mouth to stop me talking to DP.

My youngest is going through a phase of doing dangerous things while looking back at me for a reaction. Most of the time it’s scrambling onto the arm of the sofa and tipping himself off or shoving things in his mouth. I must shout NO TAKE THAT OUT or GRAB HIM about 500 times a day. DD is copying and if I ask her not to do something she will actually go out of her way to do it. She also asks me to play before bed and every night I say no as by then I swear my brain has actually melted and I’m not capable of anything more than staring into space.

I feel sorry for DD as there have been a lot of long and very boring days stuck at home with a poorly DS, but equally she doesn’t really engage with anything I arrange for her to do like crafts, or at least not for long and definitely not if I leave the room.

I’m reading all your posts and I’m very sorry others have had a bad summer holiday and in many cases, worse than mine. Vent here as much as needed! Also relieved no snotty comments have popped up to tell me I’m a crap mother.

Yeah it's been shit. Weather has been ok for us and fortunately we live on the east coast , but that's about it for positives.

Worked most of it and when I haven't been at work been too skint to do anything. No chance of a holiday. DS 6 has spent far longer than I'd like with screens as there is a limit to how often he wants to go to the park or beach and a limit to how much pretend play I can cope with in a day

Oh and @stars345 we also have CONSTANT wee and poo here as well. DD asks to use the toilet about 10 times a day - usually to get out of doing something she doesn’t want to do, like getting dressed or drinking water. They’ve both regressed with sleep - DS is waking at about midnight at the moment and his crying will wake DD who then screams until one of us goes in and she can take ages to resettle. They’re then up for the day at 6. I feel totally mentally and physically exhausted.

I’m in north east and it’s been lovely, summer felt like it started a bit later but the whole 6 weeks I only remember a couple of rainy days. It is miserable today though on and off rain. Our summer hols have been pretty rubbish tbh. I have enjoyed not having the school rush but I’ve had mum guilt because I’ve had work plus the cars got an issue so I haven’t been able to drive far when I have been off. Done the odd activity (swimming, ice skating) but not a lot really

Yes because my mum had a stroke at the start, spent 2 weeks in hospital and came home for end of life care and then died at the end of the holidays.

I just had a look back over the August weather for my area. It has been pretty good by and large . No 35degree heat waves but not too bad. Not sure where you are on the south coast.

What?? 4-5 says of hot weather, and spread out! The evenings have been cool, fan out twice this whole summer, It's been ok as in not constantly raining here but the grass this year is very green and not as dry or brown as some other years, not the worst summer but not mostly hot lol. My cardi has been out a lot more this year. We are all living in parallel universes!! Lol

What?? 4-5 says of hot weather, and spread out! The evenings have been cool, fan out twice this whole summer, It's been ok as in not constantly raining here but the grass this year is very green and not as dry or brown as some other years, not the worst summer but not mostly hot lol. My cardi has been out a lot more this year. We are all living in parallel universes!! Lol

Yes there have been some awful days, but there have been plenty of lovely days - and we are in the North! We have had mainly outside days and yes it wasn't 30 degrees but still nice sunny dry days. We will be restarting school with sun tans from scotland last week.

We've only had 3 days this summer that I haven't got the washing dried, so weather wise it's been fine (Midlands). Apart from the weather though it's been rubbish! An expensive roof repair meant we've had no holiday and haven't done anything really other than visit parks and play at home. The 3 and 11 year old have argued constantly, about absolutely everything from the TV to their respective noise levels. It's been the first summer in 20 years of parenting that I haven't loved, previously I've always been sad when summer ends and everyone heads back.

It makes me laugh when people say to wear a coat and wellies and go out in the rain anyway. It’s miserable, a shitty wet walk and then dragging muddy water in the house after and having to clean it all up and then clean the clothes and then everyone’s bodies. No fucking way.

Well, the first two weeks were hot and filled with cro-magnons (wouldn't give them the credit of reaching Neanderthal levels of intellect) smashing shit up and generally ruining the only guaranteed full week off work I had, DP's employers forced him to WFH one week because it suited them when I had already agreed to work, then permitted him to take 5 days of the 15 he had outstanding because it didn't suit them to let him take them earlier, but refused to let him take the remainder because 'we need somebody here' to work completely by himself whilst they were all on holiday/didn't bother recruiting for a replacement for the person who left, so he's lost 10 days of annual leave due to it being year end.

On top of that, it's been stiflingly hot and dull when not blazing & too hot, the rain completely failed to clear the air at all and I've been fielding barked instructions to do stuff outside my role all summer, all demanding that I do Not My Job for them as though they're the only priority in the world.

Oh, and I got up this morning to find that DP had decided to put my new clothes into a wash at 6am - except for the two brand new cotton shirts I'd bought, which he has apparently baked until crispy and have to be soaked again in the hope that the creases come out and haven't been shrunk three sizes in the process. So I did a shit day in shit stuffy weather with hot flushes (as the GP has fucked up and lost the HRT prescription and now doesn't want to re-prescribe) in a nylon shirt I'd earmarked for the bin.

I’m in Southport. This has been the most horrific, gut wrenching, tragic holidays for everyone

I’m so laughing at the living room purgatory!! Bloody Blippi will be playing on the tv and I will be constantly searching for the remote to turn it off. There will be snacks half eaten everywhere- you will tread in crunched up pombears and breadsticks. Toys will be scattered- from about 10 different activities. Paint sticks without lids. Stickers not stuck on properly and lined up wrong. Potty with a wee in it. Crying baby as the toddler tries to attack them.

Was going to say this too. We’ve had a sunny summer holidays where I am (South England).