Safe place to rant about the summer holidays rather than shouting at our child/ren!

[WideWebWitch]

Well, it's only day 2 for us and so far it's been ok but I thought maybe we could do with a place to rant about the not so good days!

So far I've borrowed someone else's child/ren on both days (as I only have one ds and he finds me intensely boring after a while, don't blame him) and we have: been to the park, had a picnic, played football, played in my car pretending to drive, been to a vile (but nice for kids) wacky warehouse type place, watched a film, made cakes and been for a long walk. Mmm and this is just Monday and Tuesday I do love the not having to be anywhereness of the holidays but I have a feeling I will have baaaaaad days...

I 'm definitely with you wickedwaterwitch - although I have two , ds is 7 (Going on 18...!) and ds is 18months - so they don't play together. We're slightly further on , week 2 not day 2 , but its not getting any better, particularly as ds is unwell. Sorry just wanted to moan ............

I have to say, that having sworn that I would never resort to plopping my kids in front of the tv as a babysitter, having the stepkids + my own for school holidays definitely make this very tempting. I am lucky that I have a husband who actually thinks that it's fun to play catch with a 20 mo.old for 2 hours.

God, and I was thinking of doing term-time working!!!

I think you're right, Maryz, about kids having to get used to being bored though. I don't remember any major attempts to keep us occupied as a child. Spent most school holidays in a state of listlessness - a habit which I have maintained into adulthood.

I've only had 2 days so far and I'm finding it all very stressful but this isn't helped by our new car breaking down badly and likely to be out of action for days yet. We are due to go on holiday on Sunday but this is looking unlikely now with the car situation. And to top it all I have come down with a cold so I feel lousy. It always happens when it is school holidays - I think it must be an allergy!

Your message made me smile, tinker.

My older ds is in the middle of an unusually sporty week - cricket coaching yesterday (amazing, great, he enjoyed it and was good and EAGERLY wants to go again next week) a swimming lesson for the next three days, then his fossil collector's club on saturday. Hurray for being an older child - so many more activites for over 8 years olds. So far, so good. Poor younger ds has to spend time in the car with me taking and colleting older ds to his things. But we've seen lots of the local playground and got out the playdoh, so he is not to fussed. He will get his treats when older ds is with his grandparents in Devon soon.

So far things aren't too bad, but I am tired already.

www - at least you have plenty to do with ds in your neck of the woods, though I know from bitter experience that there are only so many times you can go to Sorely Tunnel and find it charming.

Dear WWW - I really do understand how you feel My ds is 6½ and my dd is 10 months - so they don't really play together. DS desparately wants me to go to the park - all day and everyday - to play football with him. Fortunately his older cousin has been staying this week and they've played together, been to see Scooby Doo (saved me anyway) and played on the Playstation. Next week DS is off to some Day Camps - which he loves. And then we're all off to Disney for a week. Then it's only 3 weeks until they go back to school

You're right Tigermoth, at least there are plenty of things to do down here and it's glorious weather so we're off to the beach for the whole day. Just hope I can borrow a child again or I'll be building sandcastles all day...

I'm pleased to say that Grandma has taken my little darlings out for a few hours. I suppose I should do something productive really but it is much more fun chatting on Mumsnet. On the car front, we have been promised that our car will be ready with MOT and new clutch by Thursday tea time at the latest but they have warned us that they might not be able to get all the other parts needed for the minor faults (which they were supposed to sort out before we picked it up last Thursday). So we might be able to go on holiday after all. We have been in touch with Customer Care at head office to inform them of the situation and asked for a promise that we will have a suitable vehicle if not our own. Meanwhile I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Sorry to bore you all.

Where are you (hopefully) going PamT?

Just outside Whitby (N. Yorks for those who don't know it), a caravan site called Northcliffe at Hawsker. We go there every year because the site is so clean. We go on Superpitch where you get your own tap, electric supply and gravel pitch with shrubs around 3 sides for privacy. Its about 3 miles outside Whitby but there are some good walks and a quiet park and play area for the kids, oh and no dogs either so no dog poo. Much nicer than sites nearer a resort where you tend to get lots of rowdy drunks. We've got our own caravan but the site does have some statics for rent which are very nice.

We like to go for the first week in August so that we can enjoy lifeboat week in Whitby with the firework display and then the Pickering Steam Fair. Yes, I'm afraid we are a family of anoraks but who cares, we enjoy doing these things. I have to warn everyone now that the weather forcast will be bad for next week, it always rains when we go away!

We're planning a day trip to Whitby but it'll be the following Monday (I think) so hopefully the sunshine will have returned by then

That's the day we come home so don't bank on it. We burned the clutch out on our old car coming away from that site in the pouring rain last year. (We don't have much luck with clutches - or cars in general, in fact we are a pretty unlucky family!) That was the day that the sea front in Scarborough got so badly flooded that the tarmac broke up and shops and amusement arcades were ruined. In August too, would you believe it.

A suggestion - we live in a village where we know most people & there are lots of 11/12 year olds who are happy to earn pocket money (£1 an hour!) by coming to play with my DS - obviously I am still at home but it gives me some peace & quiet to do the housework (or go on to Mumsnet!) and DS gets lots of play & stimulation - a good use of £2 this morning!!

Lindy - what a simple but brilliant idea ... I'd have to be careful who I chose round here - he just might get taught how to break into a car in 3 easy stages

Ha ha Mabs - good point.

I should have stressed that, as we are so lucky to live in a small community, we really do get to know people very well (too well sometimes!!) so feel quite secure with other people's children around - it also means helping other mums out - eg: if they are working & need 'supervision' for their older children in the holidays rather than full scale 'minding'.

Did you see the article in yesterday's Guardian? Apparently it's good for children to experience boredom!

I do hope you get your car fixed OK, PamT. We had a really memorable holiday over 20 years ago (agh) staying in the Forest Cabins at Keldy. I remember loving Whitby and Scarborough, going on the N Yorks steam railway, visiting Goathland (is Heartbeat filmed there?) and generally enjoying the wild scenery.
The rest of this thread is a wake-up call for people like me, whose son's nursery closes for six weeks from tomorrow and who was fondly looking forward to spending ALL THAT TIME with her pride and joy...See you back here next week, maybe Tues/Weds...

I love Robin Hood's Bay, Sobernow! It's the sort of place I daydream about moving to when London living is getting me down. So, so beautiful and I seem to remember the fabbest pubs there...

Thanks Marina, yesterday they said the car wouldn't be ready until Friday so we told them that we wanted to cancel the whole contract and have our old car back. We've now changed our minds and are waiting for them to contact us to see if we can still have the new car with an extra guarantee or something to reassure us. I haven't even thought about sorting stuff out for the holiday, I've been too worried that we wouldn't get there. I've lost over 1/2 stone and have hardly slept or eaten all week so I don't feel particularly well today. I'm hoping for good news this morning then things can get back to normal.

Yes Goathland is where Heartbeat is filmed as well as lots of scenes in Whitby, Emmerdale used to be filmed at Esholt near Bradford but is now filmed at a specially built location on the Harewood estate (I believe) with indoor shots done in Otley. Last of the Summer Wine is filmed in Holmfirth and Where the Heart is comes from the Huddersfield area. So we are in quite a famous area! My local town hall is also used for court scenes for loads of programmes and A Touch of Frost uses this town hall and locations around Wakefield too. What a load of useless information!

Sorry, I have digressed somewhat from the contents of this thread. The kids went out with grandma yesterday which was wonderful - lots of uninterrupted time for Mumsnet etc. Today they are all at home and fighting, crying, moaning, whinging etc. Roll on September. DS1 has gone to play out with friends so the other two are a lot less bother now. I'd better start getting them ready to go out now, we need to set off in about one hour so it will take that long for them to get their shoes on, go to the toilet and whatever else.

PamT, Have just thought about WWW's post about borrowing someone elses children! Too bad she lives at the other end of the country as this would be ideal. Come to think of it WWW, you can borrow mine as well

PamT, you were looking for a 'work from home' opportunity and this could be it. Have you considered a 'rent a child' business! You could make a fortune

oxocube! Have failed to borrow kids today, damn!