Not long now............!!!!!!!!!!!!

sweetme

toffeentom wrote: »

It appears to me from reading these posts that anyone who has had a great time has either had huge family support, had their children in nursery/holiday clubs for the majority of the break, or totally loaded and able to either take the summer off or spend the majority of it on a fantastic holiday/break.

I am a single parent, have to work, am skint and have no family support. I can assure you that, although I love my two teenagers more than anything else I can ever possibly imagine, I can't wait for school to begin.

I'm a single parent to four, aged 16, 15, 11 and 4. I get absolutely no support with them either from their dad or my family. Up until the end of July I was working. I still managed to enjoy every bit of the summer holidays with my children. I'm skint too, I used my imagination to entertain and amuse them. I'm certain all of mine will have very fond memories of this summer.

mrcow

onlyroz wrote: »

I have also been wondering how so many people appear to have had a jolly summer spending every golden moment with their darling cherubs. Doesn't anybody go out to work anymore?

lol I'm a teacher, so my children and I are fully syncronised

lolly_896

I've had a lovely summer holidays - I work weekends so don't really get special time with the boys unless it's after school. I feel like crying thinking about them going back to school/nursery

Money_maker

I've had lovely summer hols too. Even though DD has driven me up the wall a few times, she starts school on 10th and it will be the end of spending termtime days together. DS1 goes to 6th form/college next week and DS2 finishes his GCSE's in year 11.

I know how fast they grow and will miss the hazy, lazy days of the school hols together.

shortdog

Spendless wrote: »

They have longer off in Summer as they don't have May 1/2 term (not sure about Feb 1/2 term). Depends whether you think it's better to have longer in Summer or break up more frequently?

We have the unfortunate issue that not only do we get 8 weeks off in summer, but we get both May bank holidays (with a couple of extra inset days added onto them - 8 days off last May/beginning of June) and a week off in Feb. The only month that we don't get holidays is November.
I love the holidays, if the weather is good enough for me to get the kids out. This year, we've hardly been anywhere - it's been too wet to do anything outside, and everything indoors is really busy and expensive, to the point that we've spent an awful lot of time at the local Brewers Fayre, throwing the kids in the soft play for a couple of hours:rotfl: We went to the proper soft play a few weeks ago, and were told it was about 1 1/2 hours waiting time:eek:

Janepig

toffeentom wrote: »

Or is lucky enough not to have to work - but i reckon that comes under loaded. and don't start lecturing me on not working as OH works etc etc etc etc. I do it all - not wanting a reward or medal but 3 early swimming sessions a week - so up at 4.30 and five 2 hour evening sessions a week, school, work and a dozen other activities that crop up.;

DH works full time so I get the "I work full time you work part time" guilt thing, but it many ways I'd rather be like him, sitting in an office for eight hours a day, because I drop the kids off at breakfast club at 7.45am, straight to work then, finish at 2pm(ish), straight to the school to pick them up, and then every afternoon/evening they're doing something activity wise (and DD has got more things lined up that she wants to do from next week) so I'm rushing about like a tit in a trance for the next few hours. So it would probably be a lot less stressful to work full time and not have to do the taxi-ing as well as working part time.

Jx

bestpud

I used to love having mine home but it is easier with just one child. There is a 9 year gap between our older two and the youngest and two together for 6 weeks is more work! I still felt a bit sad as they went back to school in September though.

DD2 is home educated so no back to school (hooray!)

We've had a difficult summer due to a bereavement and DD has been doing various pre-planned activities and been looked after by my parents for a few days so I feel like I've hardly seen her. I'm looking forward to a week by the sea with her next week.

I know what you mean OP, but they are little for such a short time - try not to wish their childhood away.

Oh, as for work, we've not taken any annual leave - DH works full time and I work part time but our hours only overlap by 10 minutes so we've managed the same as we would any other time.

FBaby

I would loveeeeee to get the 6 weeks off with my kids. I managed three all together and loved it. I think when you work full-time, commute so you only see your children a couple of hours and most of is to tell them to do things, holidays are a blessing.

There is no comparaison that it is much much easier to look after them then it is to deal with a working/school week. Yes, sometimes, I get annoyed when I hear SAHM going on about how hard it is. Saying that, that's when kids are at school, because looking after young children is also completely draining, especially when they don't sleep well at night.

chirpchirp

Enjoy the time with your kids during the holidays, I find they fly by as I have to send the kids to their Dad's for two weeks. I'd love to be able to have them for the six weeks. They seem to be away far too much.

Spendless

shortdog wrote: »

We have the unfortunate issue that not only do we get 8 weeks off in summer, but we get both May bank holidays (with a couple of extra inset days added onto them - 8 days off last May/beginning of June) and a week off in Feb. The only month that we don't get holidays is November.
I love the holidays, if the weather is good enough for me to get the kids out. This year, we've hardly been anywhere - it's been too wet to do anything outside, and everything indoors is really busy and expensive, to the point that we've spent an awful lot of time at the local Brewers Fayre, throwing the kids in the soft play for a couple of hours:rotfl: We went to the proper soft play a few weeks ago, and were told it was about 1 1/2 hours waiting time:eek:

Whereabouts are you? I thought all schools were open so many days per year so children would be off the same amount of time though it might be allocated differently? I can see that may not be the case if you are outside the U.K, though hubby's cousins in Canada still had the same amount of time off, just it was given as 2 weeks xmas, 1 week spring, a couple of long weekends and all the rest of the time off together in summer. I looked up my kids school calendar for the next academic year and taking bank hols and inset days into account. The only month they are there for the whole of the month is March and that's only due to the way Easter hols fall in 2013.