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 social media is full of friends that are sad their wonderful summers are over. They completed their lovely checklist of activities with their well behaved kids. They don’t seem to work much.lots of boasting on instagram. We made memories for sure but I don’t feel the need to post all the time.

6 weeks is a long time when both parents work full time.

im very anxious about the return to school and seeing if my kids behaviour will spill over into school.

honestly this whole year has been shit.

my daughter is waiting to be assessed so this unknown area is very trying. I sometimes think is it me? Did I do something wrong? Do I work too much? Mum guilt is huge.

But my other kids are completely normal. They are well behaved and just brilliant. That gives me hope that I’m not a completely rubbish parent.

South east here - weather has been properly sunny for the 6 week hol. Before then it was shocking for months but I can't complain about the weather where I am.
However - I CAN complain about my kids. 4 and 9. Fighting all the time, asking every single fucking day where we are going. I've done all the bloody parks/woodland walks/expensive days out I can handle.Their behaviour together has had me in tears some days. Hope that helps!

I am confused about the weather, live near Bournemouth and it’s been a nice summer here

sorry if that is no help but you say you are south coast too…

I think it’s the kids ages that is hard and not being able to even have a piss when you need one! Rant away! it is bloody hard and you can’t win as if it’s hot kids get miserable with heat 🥵

bring on the return of school and playgroup 🥂

It's been bloody awful in Cornwall. Cool, wet and really windy. Feel sorry for the people that spent loads of money to come here then got rained on.

the weather has been pretty consistently unpleasant where I am but in different ways - very very close and muggy with airless nights, or rainy. My work has been stressing me out horribly the whole time I have been either working or "off". I am burnt out and lost my shit this evening in Aldi (where there was NO FOOD, WHY) i just can't face it all starting up again and I haven't remotely had anything approximating to a break. My kids are great, they are 13 and 15 and they are no trouble and good company but everything else is utterly shit and I am not ready to go into a new term at all

Yes. Looking after my poorly pug who was eventually PTS on 22nd August 😭 😭

I’m not far away!

I have just about had enough as well.
Husband has returned briefly from working abroad for many months of the year. He has not been particularly kind- had an almighty row tonight and I went outside and locked myself in the car in my pyjamas and then drove to the end of the road and sat there for two hours. Otherwise he disappears and I freak out and I can’t cope with that right now
( he’ll choose not to answer his phone and deliberately ignores me)
I don’t work ( husband as I say works abroad . We have two kids. I do it all)
My mental health is not good as it is . I suffer with severe anxiety.
The children have been at each others throats ( but never when my husband is around)
My beautiful elderly Dad has recently been diagnosed with cancer and had life saving surgery two weeks ago.

It’s all a bit of a struggle and to top it off I’m living on Valium and alcohol to help me sleep.

This holiday has been shit.

@Boxachocs @Captainmycaptains and others, just wanted to send you a hug. Sorry you’re going through such an awful time

Lost my mum last week following what feels like the longest summer in history. Feels like I’m running on empty 😭

I’m really sorry to hear this. Keep going.

We lost dh's gran on the day we were meant to travel down to my mums, 2 days later we should have been flying out on holiday. We had to push it forward 2 weeks, incurring lots of extra expense. Also had to deal with lots of unwanted opinions on us moving it forward rather than cancelling from dh's extended family. Kids were upset for both reasons. Finally got away and dd started being sick half way through the plane journey. We initially thought travel sickness but she was sick for the first 3 days of our week long holiday. Dh and I split up to do stuff with our other two but dd2 lost weight she couldn't afford too lose and it wasn't the relaxing holiday we had needed.
Due to rearranging holiday they missed the week of summer camp I had arranged and they had been looking forward too. I did manage to book them into a few others which was a positive. We booked a few days away for a UK city break however there was a riot a few days before and we weren't sure if it would be safe for us to visit. Decided eventually to go and the kids did have a nice time but the drive down was stressful and we didn't linger at any service stations incase any rioters were meeting/grouping there.

I did enjoy having the kids home despite the squabbling but it wasn't the best of summer holidays.

All these posters ‘confused’ that people have had differing weather conditions over the past six weeks - we are a relatively small island nation and rarely will the whole of the UK, or even the whole of a vague area such as ‘the south coast’ experience identical weather. You don’t have to watch many national weather forecasts to see a lot of difference in temperatures, rainfall, cloud etc.

It’s interesting that people can read the OP and decide the most important thing to do here is tell @Blueybanditbingochilli she’s wrong all wrong about the weather.

So sorry 💛🐾

💔

Yes. The pattern where we are (south west) has been one fairly sunny warm day which was then followed by a week or more of grey damp chilly days. And repeat. So whenever we got a bright day, you just knew the next day would be grey. And so it was.

I live in the NW, it has been cold, windy and pissing it down for most of the summer.
The leaves are turning on the trees and the nights are drawing in so unless we have a miraculous Indian summer that's it.
I usually love Autumn and Winter (Halloween, bonfire night and Christmas!!!) but I feel like I can't cope with anymore grey miserable days. It feels like spring is a long way away and it's just depressing.
Thankfully at 17 and 14 my kids are able to entertain themselves but I have worked through the holidays and I'm shattered, I wouldn't say they have been terrible for me and clearly people have had far worse, just a bit dull and depressing.

Oh the fucking weather :…. If I had t gone away for three weeks at the start,
my vitamin d would be in negative numbers by now 🤣

Had great weather bar 2 days I think- central England. Where are you?
Try not to dwell, it’s over now. Think about what went wrong and plan for next time.

I thought the weather was pretty decent. I'm in the north and upto the last week there has been barely any rain.

I plan the hols. I make a list of things we are doing , things we want to do and then leave a few days spare for chilling/park/see friends.

So each week would look something like this-

Monday- chill day - toys in morning, park afternoon
Tuesday- see grandparents
Wednesday - day out to farm
Thursday- work
Friday- sports camp

So I know what we are doing. Plus I find free events to attend such as library activities to keep costs down

I hope for everyone you can make some good use of the pleasant September days especially weekends. Don't let this month go by.

Sympathy for those who have had difficult behaviour from children to deal with.

@ohfourfoxache It’s really shit isn’t it? Doesn’t feel real.

No grandparents here unfortunately and my children are not old enough for camps.

2 days? You must’ve had an unprecedented heatwave bordering on drought then as the average rain days for August is 9 - did you have a hosepipe ban?

My kids have been back for a few weeks the holidays seem so long ago

I hear you OP.

My kids are slightly older and I guess it has been a bit easier than the last two summers, so there's some hope for you!

But when you're trying to work and juggle childcare with kids who don't want to go to the childcare you've arranged it's very hard work! I have a fairly flexible job and have taken annual leave, but even job flexibility has its limits !

Having family nearby and holiday clubs would make things easier but it's still hard work ferrying kids around and the emotions wear you down.

and the "making memories brigade" can piss off !! most of the people posting about making memories have kids who are too young to remember these things anyway