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?!

Agree with this! We've been camping a couple of times and my children LOVED it! You might b able to pick up a tent for free on one of the free-ads websites, or Facebook, if you don't have one.

(The only.thing I hate is the light streaming in the tent at 4:30am in the summer!!)

I hate camping, always get cold & always get disturbed by the light & bird song. I'm in bed with a hat, eye mask & ear buds but the dc love it! I do try and glamp where possible. But there is nothing better than waking up on a lovely sunny, dry day, cooking & eating breakfast outside.

Maybe they've gone away at Easter/half term instead of in the summer?

Especially as there are more mums working nowadays and people need to share AL in offices...one person might for e.g. get the May half term and others might get time in the summer.

Also of you are at a school with a more diverse population people might do one "holiday holiday" and a visit once a year to Ireland/Poland/India to see grandparents.

Interestingly I think people have different perceptions of what is ‘away’. My husband was chatting to one mum he knows quite well who goes away every holidays and to some pretty exotic places. She & husband are American but holidays are to other places not just back to the states (eg Thailand at Easter, think it city break in Feb or poss skiing and Dubai at Xmas). They are def pretty well off. Anyway they were making small talk about the Easter holidays and he commented that he’d love to be able to get away as much as she did and how it must have been amazing for their kids to go to see so much of the world (he’s def less and jealous than me but obv made an effort to sound positive) and and she got all defensive and claimed to only have max 2 holidays a year, which indicates a rather diff perception of what is a holiday (poss not counting short break as a holiday). I wonder if she’s also feeling bad for the carbon emissions . . .

I have noticed this too in our middle class area, several school families I know go away effectively every half term and the summer. Growing up we went to my grandparents who lived near the seaside for our annual summer holiday and I thought we were pretty fortunate to have some sort of holiday. I went abroad twice as a child, first time is when my parents recieved some inheritence and then for my foreign language exchange.

We havent been abroad since our dc were born as we cant really afford it unless we scrimped and saved all year, and given they are young its not really worth the sacrafice. At Easter and Christmas we stay with family, and then we do a week in the summer at the British seaside.

Its quite common in my workplace for colleagues to bank up hours to take an extra long weekend.

@idratherbedrawing yeah I do think people have different definitions.

We live very conveniently for the Eurostar and have a lot of friends in France and Belgium so do a lot of weekends there - usually we get tickets in the regular Eurostar flash sales and stay with friends (in return, we put them up in London - we aren't CFs!) so it isn't very expensive at all. My mum describes these all as "holidays" which to me they really aren't but there is no right or wrong there

When my children were young we often went away during school holidays but, except for a week or two in the summer holidays, “away” meant visiting family. My parents were divorced, so that meant three sets of parents to visit, none of whom lived close enough to make daily trips a pleasant experience.

Grandparents sometimes came to us, of course, but less frequently as they got older.

This must add up, surely?

@MonsteraDelicious it's affordable for us. I feel we have a fairly modest budget compared to the holiday threads I see on here.

I am a teacher and I go away every holiday. This is one reason why I am still teaching h at 58. May be retiring in the summer. Roll on cheap holidays…

this isn’t a new thing this was general holiday intinery when and I was a kid and hasn’t really changed with people nowadays

October half term - European city break or visiting family
Christmas- visiting family
feb half term - skiing or seeing family we didn’t see at Christmas
Easter - family visiting us or skiing
May half term- scout or guide camps. Maybe a trip to centre parks or holiday abroad
summer- holiday abroad. But you’re away for a week, then another family is for another week so there’s actually 3 days when everyone can meet up.

One thing I see is that if you want a formal package holiday you can pay way, way more than booking your own travel and a self catering place.
We'd go mad in a resort so we save that way. We do packages for skiing sometimes though.

Be careful in assuming that, we have found it's not necessarily true. May and October half terms can be very pricey if a sun holiday as prices rocket for holidays in countries with the better more reliable weather - so does depend on where and what time of holiday. We have found summer holidays can be same or less than May/October particularly if leave it late to book

Agree, I have looked at flights every may half term & found them way more expensive than summer, because you only have a week the dates are far less flexible so it’s more expensive. October is cheaper for me cos kids have 2 weeks so one week is not everyone else’s half term. We have gone away then in previous years as well as summer which felt like a massive treat, in those years our summer holiday was pretty more modest (camping one year and going to see family so free accommodation the other)

round here the better off families go away other weekends as well as half term - esp if it’s a bank hol like this one.