To DREAD the school holidays..!!

[Alderney]

I HATE the holidays. They start on Friday for us. I hate the fact that EVERYTHING is shut (playgroup, toddler group - everything)...I hate the fact that the park is stuffed full of mothers at the end of their tethers too...and children who are bored out of their minds.

I don't have children who want long lies and pyjama days....I have 2 children who want entertained from dusk to dawn, who will vie for attention all day, an Elder child who will want me to watch every single jump onto the sofa that she ever does...

I see the summer holidays as 49 days that I have to fill 12 hours a day in. I see it as a time when my house will get ripped to shreds and I'll generally have shouted once each day by 8am.

DH gets no more time off because its the holidays - in fact he has been very limited as the time he can take off because other people are on holiday....he'll still be out from 8 till 6:30 every night, which gives him a grand toital of 90 minutes with them every day - and for the first hour od that he'll still be asleep in the morning. So I can reckon on respite of about 30 minutes a day, whereas normally we have 2 lots of playgroup a week for DD1 and 5 lots of Preschool for DD1.

I find holidays very very tiring. The ONLY thing that I won't miss is the very rushed lunch hours because we have to leave for preschool at 12:30 - and DD1 takes greqt pleasure in eating slower and slower and less and less the more I need her to hurray up - I'm hoping to get some of her eating issues sorted out over the summer when I have time to sit far an hour over a bowl of macaroni.

Sorry - all the "endless days of fun" that everyone else looks forward to, are exactly what I dread.

I love them because ds is 11 and fairly independent and doesn't require much amusing - I so miss him when he goes back to school ( I am self employed and at home, so I relish the company)

I really understand where you are coming from, Alderney. Our holidays begin on Friday too and DD has 8 weeks off school. Am very comfortable and very used to our usual school-based routine and so is she and we both get unsettled as the holiday looms and then begins. I generally spend the first week (at least) feeling supremely grumpy and irritated by her, which makes me feel guilty, which makes me more grumpy and thus more irritable.

I have DD who is 8 and DS1 who is 3 (plus a baby Ds, too) so finding stuff that they both enjoy to the same extent is not easy. DS1 is going through a hellish whinging and whining stage and DD demands attention from me a huge proportion of the time - sounds like your DD - not to mention the bickering and winding up that goes on between the two of them.

I am pretty much dreading the weeks ahead, but have planned it in the same way I would approach a job, have booked DD in for several days at the holiday club at her school, and resolve to get my head down and get through it.

Hope your holidays go OK - keep in touch with how things are going...!

Oh man up, be brave and bloody enjoy it.

It does not least forever you know, one day your kids will be gone......

that's very true DrNortherner - they are soon grown up !

Any kind of holiday or out of school clubs or stuff they can go to so you get a break? - even if it's just for a day or two?

There's something called King's Camp near me where the kids can go and do sports or crafts or games for anything from a day to a week at a time. they don't camp there, they come home every day. I know it's an added cost, but it might be worth it!

Otherwise, can you do some swapping with other parents near you - take it in turns to have neighbours' kids or etc.

Or just go to the pub, that's always open

Our school holidays started at the weekend and so far I'm enjoying it, but maybe ask me again in a few weeks

Completely know where you are coming from Alderney...much as I adore my ds who has just turned 5, he is so full on and I am expecting no 2 in September and am so very tired all the time

My ds requires constant attention - he WILL NOT play on his own - never has. I just cannot be crawling around on the floor with him at the moment due to my size

No holiday clubs on here, even the church one is not on this year so I will have him from 6am every morning til dh gets home in the evening and he will be bored out of his mind and I will just want to cry.

Oh dear.

there's loads of really inexpensive things you can do that will waste hours of a day.

for example, if you drive a car normally, take the train to visit folks/friends/relatives.

kids their age will think it's better than any trip to soft play.and it'll be cheaper.

or get them cooking.if it's going to be somethings really messy like mixing dough or cutting out cookie shapes don't worry about them making a mess. get one of those cheap plastic table covers from pound stores, let them do it. you do a dough too, as no doubt there's won't be mixed right.

if the cookie's are no good, who cares.all it cost you was some flour and sugar.

use basic recipes. none of the fancy wholemeal, white chocolate numbers if your a beginner. it'll be too hard, and the kids prefer the plain ones and get tubes of icing and draw wee faces on.

if they turn out fab! great, show them of to dh

yvonnek.....you are right there is loads of stuff to do, but my ds is one of those children that only does any activity for 15 mins then onto the next one, and frankly any activity that isnt me on the sofa with a box of maltesers at the moment just isnt my idea of fun

Am going to do a bit of research on the net re: ideas for things to do, I think. Anyone know when you should stop driving when you are pregnant/or if you need to at all???

don't need to stop driving at all.

Oh I am counting the days till the end of school, I cant wait.
No lunch bags to do for 6 weeks, going sailing with DPs family for two weeks, trips to the zoo, the beach, museums, days out, BBQs, craft days, it is endless and I love every moment of it, I hate September coming round and back to school.

Ok STOP sitting for an hour with the macaroni. Let her sit for n hour with it if she must, but you could be readng the newpaper and having a coffee for that long drawn out hour.
Get the garden set up safely so you can throw them outside with paper mache and paint and whatever and it doesnt seem so bad outside. Also another oppurtunity to sit and make murmuring, Hmm thats lovely noises from afar.
Paint the fences/outside walls with water and food colouring was how my dds spent HOURS of summer.
Picking daisys...me sitting elsewhere reading...getting a theme now.
Yes darling ill watch you when ive done this...dont pander, hopefully they will get bored waiting and go do something else.
Then you can be REALLY enthusiatic AT YOUR LEISURE and sy What was it you were gonna show me.

my neighbour had to drive herself to hospital in labour. mind you it's only a couple of roundabouts away.

wouldn't do it myself. but if needs must!

Are there local playschemes where you are Alderney? Round here there's one morning and afternoon, and it's free, and you don't have to book - you can just show up. It might be worth looking on the website of your local council.

Thinking back to when I was a kid my mum was in your position with 2 to entertain and I think what she did was get into a routine. I think it can help. Every single morning, she took us on the bus to the beach (if you're not near the beach it could be to a local woods or something) and we were there for hours, came back for lunch, so we only had the afternoon to amuse ourselves. We played out alot, do your kids play out? I know it's a bit out of fashion nowadays.

We had a few days out here and there throughout the holidays but basically a morning of physical activity somewhere really helped us all I think.

And do bear in mind what DrN said, you'll be amazed just how soon this period is over, they grow fast and soon don't want to spend every day with you!

I love the school hols...a bit of time to spend with kids without the restrictions of the school timetable.

It makes me feel when mums say they hate the hols.

My DS has just worked out how much fun it is to make farty noises on his arm. I've got 6 weeks of that. Lucky me.

I always feel so sorry for DH as he works and misses all this...I am very lucky to be the one who stays home with the children and I count it as a blessing

I know situations differ, but I have to say that if my DH didn't take time off at all in the summer I would have huge amounts to say about that. We make sure that we book leave as soon as the new leave year starts so that we both take some weeks over the summer holiday. six or eight weeks on your own, particularly if your children aren't the type to bake or get absorbed in anything for long, CAN seem a mountain to climb and I think it's only fair that the DH's take a turn....could your DH book leave earlier in the year alderney? Call me an un-trusting old hag but it seems a bit easy just to say oh, I can't get time off........

Honoria....I completely agree re: dh time off thing. Unfortunately, my dh needs some holiday for when the baby arrives and we have used the rest on family hols already this year (before I got too big to fly) so I am on my own.

He is such a lovely little chap - just wish I was looking forward to his holidays more

What Northerner said.

I would go mad if I had to stay at home for the 6 weeks. I take DC camping (UK) for the whole hols, and DH joins us as much as he can. This way we can be outside as much as poss, out on the bikes etc, and theres no mumsnet housework to distract me, so I'm happy to play with them lots. It is quite cheap, compared to days out in London.

This year, for the weeks I'm on my own with them we're going to holiday camps, so I can get a couple of hours off to myself while they do kids clubs.

I dreaded my first half term with the 3 DC on my own as i thought it would be so difficult but not having the pressure of the school run, packed lunch, the day being broken up with the preschool run and constantly putting DD2 in and out of the car it was much easier than I thought.
It sounds anal but plan each week so then you know what you are doing. if they have some structured time then you can let then tear around and jump on sofas for a bit while you have a cup of tea. it is tiring when you are PG but if you have a plan of action at least then you will feel in control.
Have a few 'adventures', bundle the DC in the car and tell them you're goingon an adventure, take them to a different play park the beach the seaside a forest a lake oranywhere different. Some days i won't have a clue where we're going just a magical mystery tour. take a picnic get them to help you shop for it when you need to do the usual shop.
set them challenges for craft stuff like how many pages of colouring can you do or have a big ongoing project like a big seaside picture on the wall than you can add things to.
have rainy day back ups too.
i started a thread sometime ago of things to do and found some good websites for rainy day ideas - one of my DCs best was and indoor obstacle course, a scavenger hunt and a 'boot camp' - I'll try to find the thread.
If you wear thewm out running around you can bring them back home let them choose a DVD and they might be more happy to sit down then.
I love having my DCs at home now.

I would dread 6 weeks looking after my dc on my own too. When people say they love it I just think "but they don't have my children, maybe they would be dreading it if so". Not that mine are particularly awful but there are 3 of them all quite young still and it's a handful.

am very glad I work and can use holiday clubs and sprint off merrily to work some days in the holidays. I like to have some time off with my children but after a few weeks they are pretty happy to go to holiday club and get a break from our family life, and I am pretty happy to go back to work.

Found it here