To get irritated by people who call every school holiday Half Term?

[sorrynotathome]

How can you not know that the half term holiday is in the middle of the term? After the first half and before the second half. At the end of term is the Easter, Summer or Christmas holidays. Do some people think Half Term is an English word for schools being closed? Now I’ve typed term so much it’s started to look weird.

Because people who need genuinely clarification would say something like “what date are you going?” Or “which day are you doing it?”

The faux naive passive aggressive says thing like “do you mean Easter?” Or “you mean Easter?” - the language difference is correction vs clarification.

The correction is there in the hope it might catch on and people start actually being accurate and clear about something it's very easy to be accurate and clear about.

Nothing faux naive about it when I give the correction. It is both correction and clarification, unapologetically.

I think I’ve called school holiday half term when it isn’t because I didn’t care that much to be so specific. Sometimes I’d call it Christmas hols or Easter hols or summer hols but it didn’t matter that much. It’s a break,
schools finished. Thank heavens I don’t need to worry about school hols anymore as my kids are at uni and our whole lives feel like a holiday. We are finally free from the restraints of school and we can holiday when we like.

I think it's more confusing if people call all the breaks half term - e.g. at work if we are trying to share out the leave and everyone is talking about 'half term' but actually some people mean May half term and some people mean Easter.

I told the kids recently I'd booked Dorset for half term and they were very excited thinking it was in 2 weeks but I meant May half term (I was surprised they were confused as they go to Catholic school so the Easter break is definitely referred to as the Easter break at school).

Glad that behaviour makes you feel better even if the other person feels embarrassed.

Its so un-necessary but you clearly know that and just don’t care.

My daughter does this and I constantly correct her.
I brought her up better than this.
I find it very irritating.
Half term - half way thru the term.
Easter, summer, Christmas are main hols.

What is so difficult to comprehend?

If that is all you have to worry about, you lead a charmed life. Not everyone has kids. So they call it half term. Big deal.

I’m not sure what not having kids has to do with anything. I don’t have kids. I only call it half term when referring to mid term holidays.

Why on earth would this bother you enough to post about it? My children are grown now so I have no clue when school holidays are, and couldn't care less to be honest. What a strange thing to be irritated about

Even the summer holidays? 🤨

I love all of the half terms

I've found my tribe! (Well, 69% of the voters). I've been annoyed by this for YEARS. I know I'm a massive saddo, there are far more important things in life, I must live a charmed existence yadda yadda.

Tend to find folk say summer hols, and sometimes Christmas break...but Easter often gets called "half term" and it's irritating. When mine were in primary and parents would ask me if the kids finished at lunchtime, I'd always say "they finish at lunch time for full terms; Christmas, Easter and Summer. For all half term - Feb, May and October, it's normal pick up time". I was hoping to educate them a bit (yeah, I'm a nerd).

Lol. URBU. Get a ruddy grip! Every half a term there is a holiday!

I’m 39. I called all holidays half term, apart from the “summer holiday” and I was in UNIVERSITY before I found out there are three terms. Not a single person corrected me in nearly 15 years of saying “half term” for everything.

Yes! Find it infuriating. I’m being petty I know but it’s just so obvious to work out.

My kids’ school has an early finish on the last day of every term but on the last day of half terms it doesn’t. So last day before Christmas, Easter and summer breaks is an early finish, the rest are not. Lots of schools around our way operate the same. And yet every single time we break up for a holiday, a parent will ask on the WhatsApp whether it’s an early finish or not. And every time, a parent will say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and explain the rule. And yet 5 years into the school experience, there are parents still asking the same thing. Often the same parents every half term. Drives me insane!

Why?!!

You ‘never know what time of year it is’? What do you mean? You don’t know what month you’re currently in? Season? You can’t work out if it’s hot or cold outside or what time the sun might set? How on earth do you function in life?

Some posters have just reminded me of an important difference between full term and half term holidays; the early finish that often happens at the end of one and not the other. I wonder how all these people who don’t think there’s any need to differentiate because they’re all just breaks and what does it matter, actually manage to pick their kids up on time.

Really? As a ND person I have learnt something!
So it's really important that I use the correct wording when I seek clarification, or you will think I'm being dishonest!

If I don't know whether someone means May or April when they say "half-term", saying "do you mean Easter?" means I know they do mean Easter, whereas saying "what date do you mean" means I don't know!

Is this true for everyone else - one of those rules everyone else somehow knows? I've never known about this differentiation before and it would never have occurred to me. And are there any others I might not be aware of?

I can't quite get my head around it being perfectly fine to use some specific terms interchangeably and people are meant to assume they know what is meant, but for others it's incredibly important to say the right one or someone will decide you're not being genuine.

They might have children at schools that don't do that.

My son's school doesn't finish early at the end of any of the terms.

I agree OP but my biggest irritation is when kids and parents refer to everyone who who works in a school as a teacher when only teachers are teachers.

They let you into university in spite of the fact that you thought there were six halves in one term?

I had no idea there were six halves. I got into university having NEVER WONDERED why it was called Half Term. As far as i was concerned there was one long school year, and you got to have breaks from school some times and those breaks were all called Half Term. And when you dressed in your own clothes it was mufti day and when you randomly had a day off it was an inset day and sometimes you got a different teacher and it was called a supply teacher. Zero consideration given to why those things are called those names throughout my whole school career 😅

Its well known that its part of the application for university and jobs thereafter that you need to know what a half term is!!!

Lol

Are we Bullying on mumsnet? Its fine that it irks you. It is perfectly reasonable to want people to use the correct terms and its even fine to be baffled by people that havent noticed the term didnt make sense in their usage but none of that entitles one to snark.

There are misnomers that are used in daily life much more than any eg. tin foil, dry cleaning. Some people if theyve thought about it might think its this, in most cases of halfterm misusage people probably dont think about it. I'm sure you can understand its not something that people spend much time thinking about or is worth being mean over.