Half term

[CompletelyFlopped]

When I was young, we only ever went away for one holiday in the summer holidays. That was normal! In half term, Easter hols etc.. we hung out with friends or at home etc..

As my children are getting older I've noticed that where we live everyone seems to go away EVERY holiday! Half term? "We're away", Easter hols? "We're away"...

So it's May half term soon and was hoping my kids would be able to.apend some time outside with their friends on their bikes etc.. but literally everyone we know is away again!!! What the?

Is this normal now? How does everyone afford to go away every holiday? And how do they get so much time off work!!!

Where does everyone go?! And why?!

Are they going on actual holiday or are the kids staying with grandparents or their other parent?

I think must be specific to the area you live/people you know.

I'd consider the norm to be one holiday with many people struggling to do that.

I agree that "going away" during holidays is quite often spending a 2 or 3 days with non-local grandparents.

We do. But it’s camping. And costs like £120 for 4 or 5 days. Food is the same as if we were at home.

I think mixed in with more holidays is people going to see family because it’s more usual not to live close to your parents any more. We had friends in primary school who did maybe 3 weeks holiday away each year (2 weeks summer, 1 Easter) but were also away, especially at half term, seeing 2 sets of grandparents.

Are you sure they are all going away on proper holidays? We usually only go on booked holidays in summer, but we quite often go and stay with family or friends in other parts of the country during half terms or Easter.

Like you OP when we were younger we went on one family holiday a year ((UK) & not every year. School holidays were spent at home / playing outside / day trips.
In my 20s / 30s I visited a few countries abroad and now I’ve got my own family we live in a different county to my parents and siblings, so Easter and summer school holidays (& sometimes half terms) DD and I usually go and stay with them for a few days, &/or they come to us. Since last winter we haven’t gone down to stay though, due to my mum not being well.
I work PT, term time and DH works FT.
DH, DD and I also do a lot of days out throughout the year including visiting my family for the day, and we 3 went on a UK break as a family in Feb half term.
I’m not sure if we’ll go on another family holiday this year and most of our spending money goes on food out / little treats through the year / stuff that needs doing in the house.
I do like travelling / holidays etc but am also happy and have plenty to do / places to visit at home. We also like our home comforts / own beds!
However, DH & I have never been abroad together or as a family so that’s something I’d like to do in the next few years.

I feel the same as you op.

All of my children’s friends go for holidays or mini breaks ant various times during the year, it they take time out of school to go away to be able to afford to do so.

I feel sorry for my children having to listen to all the excited talk before and after their holidays from their friends and parents as we just can’t compete. I understand their excitement of course, but we haven’t been able to afford a holiday for a few years as my Husband is a teacher so we would also have to go on holiday at the most expensive times, and we’ve also had other financial pressures.

I’m happy for my friends, but I get tired of them gloating about their ‘bargain’ deals they’ve managed to get throughout the year that they pull their children out of school for, and saying they don’t care if they’re fined as it’s still thousands of pounds cheaper.

There’s no need to be so nasty, is there really?

As a single parent I can’t afford to even take my one DC to a static caravan for a weekend this year. Wish I hadn’t opened this thread I feel the shittest mum alive

It wasn’t nasty, it was meant as a friendly joke, hence the wink smiley.

My thoughts exactly. I was awaiting for some witty repartee 😐

We don’t go away on holiday every school holiday (I teach so I’m off anyway; dd is older now but when she was at school) but we were often away visiting family/friends for at least some of the time. We’d be away in holiday 3 or 4 of the school breaks - so maybe a fortnight in the summer, October or February half term, maybe a week (sometimes 2O at Easter and a few days over May. Busy over Christmas seeing family and friends.

as term time was so busy we’d be out and about a lot in the school breaks

Me and my children go away most holidays.

Quite often without DH (I work in the independant school my children attend, DH runs his own company and can't take as much time off as we get)
All my family and some of our best friends live 250miles away so we travel to see them a lot, as often as we can.

Typically we will spend 4 (seperate) weeks a year away on holiday with DH as a family of 4....typically 2 abroad holidays, 1 UK holiday and 1 week staying with my family
Maybe an extra long weekend in centre parcs too

And myself and my children go to stay with my family without DH when hes at work

I often do a cheap and cheerful holiday with my just myself and my children without DH as well, either abroad or UK, and normally with friends, where we go with the Mums and Kids while the Dads stay behind and work.

We do lots of random cheap and cheerful nights / weekends away too... (premier inn / youth hostel etc, not always extravagent)

Im lucky that my family members have houses large enough spare bedrooms for us to fit in and stay very easily, and our house is large enough for them to all come and stay with us, together too.

I tend to go abroad at Easter as it’s too hot for me in the summer. Most of my children’s friends seem to be around in the three half terms.

I noticed that when I worked in a school, that a lot of the children had Grandparents who had an apartment, or villa, in another Country. They would be going to visit them virtually every school holiday.

YANBU - I think travel has become the norm and also more affordable. Loads of people spend 30% or more of their income on holidays these days.

Personally I think it's sad as my DC barely see their friends in the holidays as a result. In the Easter hols I think it was maybe 2 days in total they saw friends.

Loads of people spend 30% or more of their income on holidays these days.

We defo do not spend that much of have that much spare!

Yanbu to want other people to stay home just to suit your kids

2 days in Easter holidays is more than enough of seeing friends. Some people don’t seem to be happy spending any time as a family.

I’ve noticed this too. I live in central London so did think it was influenced by the high income of some families plus also lots of people who aren’t from the uk so they go and visit family where they are from. But i don’t think it’s just these things - eg one of my daughter’s friends is half French (her dad) and they go to France a lot, so many trips are staying with family but they do also have lots of other holidays, way more than us, despite not being that much better off. I have similar confusion over how they get the leave. I have a generous amount of leave (30 days) but couldn’t go away that much and affording it is another matter too. I am a bit jealous but also do like having time off at home, plus it’s useful for diy jobs so I don’t know how those who are constantly away fit that in.

Same here - have much shorter breaks

Totally depends on the area you live I would imagine. I don't know anyone who goes away that much, I know plenty of people who manage one Haven holiday a year and a few who might have a foreign holiday. I also know a lot of people who never go away ever.

We are going to a caravan park for 5 nights in the summer and that will be it this year. We have done Eurocamps for the past couple of years.

This may be totally unhelpful but if you can borrow a tent you can probably find a green field campsite near you for not very much.
In 2020 my DCs were ecstatic to go to a campsite 6 miles from us. They didn't care that it wasn't far away, and it cost £25 for the pitch for a weekend.

Please don't feel like that, there are tons of people in the same boat. People going on multiple breaks a year are very privileged.

Agree with all of that really! I thought it might be area specific in my case, but appears not from this thread!

My eldest starts school this September, we won’t be holidaying in July and August and will instead be doing Feb May and Oct half terms are much much cheaper than summer hol prices