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.

Yep, it really annoys me too!

Every time someone refers to half term when they're talking about the Easter, Summer or Christmas holidays, it totally confuses me as I think they mean the actual half term that's been the case my whole life!

100% agree! Had this conversation the other day with a colleague who wanted time off for half term at the end of March and I got confused thinking she meant the end of May.. so I took the opportunity to explain that isn’t half term, that’s the Easter holidays and how the terms work 😂

YANBU.

I'm also infuriated by people who can't understand whether the clocks go forward or back during March and October.

I had to Google it cause it’s not really a thing in Scotland.

its quite common for people with neurodiversity to struggle with this.

Presumably the parents went to school themselves though?! I'm in my 50s. The holidays were called the same as they are now.

We've always called it February Weekend and October week. And the holiday in May is just a couple of days off 😂 Also bonus for September weekend if you're from Glasgow/Lanarkshire sort of areas but turns out that totally baffles people from other areas who have never heard of it!

We won't mention my English MIL who raised 3 children in Scotland yet continues to seem completely surprised and confused when our children aren't on holiday at the same time as England and frequently refers to half term, which "year" our kids are in at primary school, reception, governors, grammar schools etc.

Thankfully our school has 3 terms, with 6 half terms. Not sure where this half term malarkey has come from, but it is need very annoying.

I had this conversation with someone last week. She was genuinely puzzled, couldn't remember if it meant the evenings or mornings were going to be lighter.

IT'S THE SAME FUCKING THING EVERY SIX MONTHS AND ALWAYS HAS BEEN, HOW CAN YOU NOT FUCKING REMEMBER

YANBU, my sister always did it when my nephew was at school. Bizarre.

We get a full fortnight in October in Fife

perfect for a cheapish holiday in the sun when everyone else is still at school

and I too have to translate the Scottish system to English relatives and colleagues 🤣

I can't remember this. I have to work it out every time.

I have to go through the entire thought process of "Right. Clocks go forward next next weekend. That means 6 becomes 7 so if it currently gets dark at 6 it will now be getting dark at 7. But if it gets light at 7 that's now 8 so it's darker mornings and lighter evenings. Got it:.

So I hide my ridiculous inability to remember the impact of clocks changing by working it out but I do have to do the working out.

Oh and I can only remember the way the hours are changing by saying "spring forward, fall back" to myself as well. I can't make it stay in my head that in March the numbers go up one and down in October without the reminder saying.

Spring forward, fall back

Thats the only way I remember but I rely on other people mentioning it otherwise it wouldnt happen!!

I dont know why people get upset about what other people can or cant remember.

Cross posted

And even though I know which way the clocks go, I cant work out what that means in actuality until it happens!

Completely agree!

Yes it’s ridiculous. Why would anyone call a school holiday at Xmas Easter or summer, half term?! When it’s not half way through a term! That’s what half term holidays are 🤦🏼‍♀️ I would always passively aggressively correct then or play dumb

It makes my teeth itch, just hate it. I’ve got a teacher friend who does it too and that’s the absolute worst. She should know better!

Oh very good OP, thank you for voicing a great irritation of mine!

Thanks for the explanation 😃

I'll sit in my corner and grumble about 'There, their and they're. And 'Your' and 'You're' 😂

Completely agree. Having to sit on my hands to stop myself from commenting on a Facebook page run by a travel agent, called "Easter half term UK breaks". Wanted to ask which term the Easter "half term" holiday is half-way through. 🙄

I heard someone say this for the first time the other day. I had no idea this was a thing and now it will irrritate me officially 😂.

I don't think I would cope with 2 full weeks in October tbh. The Christmas holidays just about finish me off 😂

I would be more understanding if she had only ever experienced the English system but all of her children and all of her grandchildren attended/attend Scottish schools and nurseries. But of course my kids aren't as important as the grandchildren not yet in school and the other ones left years ago so that's probably why she hasn't bothered to keep up 😂

It's totally a thing now!!! And it is SO WEIRD

usually I can get my head round a language change because it is often obvious what benefit the speaker is getting from it - cultural shifts, or part of a wider process of grammaticalisation, or two languages slowly merging, or describing a new thing, or what have you. But this one has me completely baffled.

People saying "I can't remember what the holidays are called, I haven't been at school for 20 years" - what the actual fuck???? That's like saying you can't remember the address of the house where you grew up! Or because you are now 39 and haven't had a "big birthday" for 9 years, you forgot people like to celebrate round numbers!! Or you forget what a leap year is! Or what France is! Or what a wedding is! ...because you haven't encountered them for several years. Surely people, there is just stuff you learn, and then forever afterwards you KNOW IT.

How can anyone who went to school not know what school terms and holidays are called? I still know where the fucking Wing Attack is allowed to go on a netball court, and I probably played netball eight times, thirty two years ago.

There must be something about "half term for everything" that feels modern and fresh somehow. Maybe it helps us have a sense that we live in a continual present, not bound to the seasons of the year?? But the seasons of the year are ... NICE?!!!

And the fact you get only a week off for a half term, but then LOTS OF WEEKS for a full term holiday like Easter, Christmas or summer. Do people not care about this difference? Don't they want to mark it?

Basically I can see no utility in the new way of doing it. I can understand someone, for example, making the new coining of "yay or nay" because yay has a good modern meaning that "Yea" no longer has, so it improves the saying by updating it and gives it a better chance of being understood.

But calling everything half term is a pure loss of meaning.

It would be like saying you're going to call all the Bank Holiday Mondays "Sunday" because there are also lots of Sundays in the year and it's just like the same thing innit you don't have to go to work and Westfield isnt open past 5pm how annoying.

Or calling every meal "afternoon tea". Morning afternoon tea, midday longer afternoon tea, afternoon tea, evening formal afternoon tea, before bed afternoon tea. Fucking insanity.

It must be that we find the official markings of the year no longer something we want to be bound by?

We like an endless, weatherless, consumerist indoor hellscape where any week could be like any other.... and we look up as we scroll our phones, occasionally get a sort of hint of a holiday, "half" a "break"... but it doesn't really change our long grey capitalist march to our graves.

Happy Easter, everyone!!!

Yep, although I can't work out what the distinction is between a staycation and a regular school holidays trying to entertain the DCs

But going away on holiday is absolutely going on holiday whether that's abroad or the UK. The UK is an amazing country with so much variety, and it absolutely deserves to be recognised as a holiday.

The point of "staycation" was "staying" at home, cutting out the cost of accomodation and exploring what was avaliable locally.