Schoolhol`s not yet started, feel stressed

Mado

Great link Margaret... but nothing within 40 min drive for me.
Will just have to take some time of as couldn't anything for the 3 of them, and there is little point splitting them.
Guess it will be everybody in the garden and at the park....

Curry_Queen

Am I the only one who actually enjoys the school hols

I know my youngest is 12 now, and can basically take care of himself, but even when they were all younger I used to look forward to spending time with them in the holidays. There's plenty of time for housework etc once they've gone back to school

Mado

Curry_Queen wrote:

Am I the only one who actually enjoys the school hols

It's not that I don't enjoy the holidays... it's just that it is a real organisation challenge when you work, and my kids have got extremely high expectations of how much of my time should be dedicated to their enteternaiment (doesn't look right but can't spell today).
Any crafty activity takes 10 minutes to set up, 20 minutes of fun and 1hour for mum to clean up!

foreverskint

Me too CQ. My girls 'live'with their dad during the week. I get them at weekends and the school holidays. So I look forwards to the hols.

Try to imagine what it would be like if you didn't see them everyday and had no real control over their lives. Oerhaps you might see the holidays differently.

No dig intended, it's just nice to see things from a different viewpint.

i must admit though my usually very tidy house does look as though a bomb has gone off in it. I try to encourage them to do some tidying up before they go out/start something new, or before a meal.

We do absolutley nothing usually due to lack of money, but we seem to have a nice time being at home, having 'pyjama days' (where they don't have to get dressed, good for teenagers), doing some cooking or watching a movie and vegging.

Look at your kids in a different light and enjoy them for who they are, good company,a good laugh and your lovely beautiful children.

Savvy_Sue

margaretclare wrote:

Whatever county you live in, that county will have a Wildlife Trust. And they have days for kids - they even do birthday parties where the kids don't need a party dress! Pond-dipping, mini-beasts, all the things that kids like because it involves getting muddy and dirty! And using up energy, doing things in the fresh air, coming home tired, and sleeping well.

Slightly off topic, but there was a science / nature park near us which also did birthday parties, indoors. And there was a vast amount of woodland around it. And one day we were there when there was an orienteering / assault course challenge happening in the woods, which kids could just sign up and take part in, so off my boys went, leaping in and out of muddy tyres, crawling through muddy pipes, going on an aerial runway etc.

There was also a birthday party of little girls there, in party frocks and clean white ankle socks, who also thought this looked fun to join in after their party ... actually not so clean white ankle socks when they'd all finished! :rotfl:

To all you struggling to get things done, get the kids to HELP while they're off school. Going out for the day? Get them to come and make the sandwiches. Need the clean washing sorted? Tip it out on your bed and let them find their own! Had a lot of fun painting? Now wash the paint pots (hopefully out in the garden!) That really is the time to get some action out of them - "Yes you can do those fun things but I need some help first!"

Enjoy it while they are young enough to want more than a taxi and cashpoint service from you! Try, anyway!

And think of me over the summer, convalescing post-op (I hope - need that fingers crossed smiley again!) with three teenagers lolling around! Mind you, if they don't shop, cook and wash up then, they will starve!

jellyhead

one of my favourite holiday activities is to grab a couple of random kids off the streets and take them with my spud to the park half a mile away (they're mostly not allowed to go there alone but are allowed to go with me despite me not knowing any of their parents - wierd) or the park in the town (it has a paddling pool, we take inflatables, water pistols, etc.). spud gets kids to play with (he's an only child) and i get to read a book (i'm too pregnant to muck about with water pistols!). nobody's messing up my house, and i can't see the housework so i can easily ignore it! we walk there and get hubby to pick us up when he finishes work, or we walk back if there are too many kids. the park's great, we can spend hours there. i take drinks with me, or if i'm feeling generous we'll go for a happy meal. random kids off the street are also allowed to go to the school playscheme if i take them there (meaning i pay the fee, lol!).

i enjoy holidays but i only have one child, it's all easy and all good fun. if i have my nephews i do get stressed though, the whining and bickering annoys me. 2 kids is good, 3 is horrid, it all depends on the kids though, my nephews are used to sitting in front of the playstation all day and eating lots of chocolate so i suppose if they were my own children they wouldn't be so whiny because they'd never have got into those habits so wouldn't be upset when i said no

bethscott1970

Living in Scotland has it's advantages, our kids don't have another holiday until the summer hols start on July 1st

So I'll be relaxing over here keeping the board going while you're all playing referee and try to work out why little johnny had the urge to put his sister doll down the loo or trying to fit those extra lots of shopping into the budgets

swizzlebabe

Thanks for all that, was just havinga bad day I guess, horemones no doubt, although I do suffer from depression aswell. OH is working all day sat, sun an and mon as usual, feel like a single parent most of the time, but still have him to look after!!

Money is tight, have already thought of a few free things to do and maybe 1 or 2 things to pay for, might take them 10 pin bowling only £5 isf I hook up with someone else then back to ours or theres to play in the garden.Going to let them choose a video from the library 50p for the week and get a secret stash of choc to get me through the worst times.

Just find it hard to cope sometimes, it`s nice to have them at home and not be rushing about,but when they start fighting it does my head in, and I think why did I have 2? someone said if I had only 1, they would just fight with me, true?

jellyhead

depends how old they are maybe, my 8 year old boy doesn't fight with me, but perhaps a girl would. everything's easier if you're not depressed though, i'm sorry you're stressed already *HUGS*

what ages are your kids, and what do they like to do? if they're young i have found that playstation etc. causes lots of arguments and winds kids up to the point where they get irritable and unpleasant so although it seems like a good way to get some peace i'd recommend setting a time limit of 30 minutes perhaps or they'll get wound up and start bickering. the computer would be a better option, if you tell us the age/sex of your children we can all probably recommend websites, although i haven't got a clue about girls to be honest. i really like the orisinal website, one game 'under the sea' has lovely calming music, it's fab lol! it helps with teaching mouse control too. http://www.ferryhalim.com/orisinal/

our holiday started today and has got off to a fab start, not - i was awake half the night with itchy legs and swollen feet and was going to have a lie in but spud woke me up as soon as hubby left for work - the TV controls are missing (we searched the entire house several times last night) and he's also lost his glasses so he can't play on the computer - he's gutted about that because he traded in some playstation games yesterday for an educational PC game with maths puzzles, he's depserate to play it but he can't until he finds his glasses. i sleepily suggested that just because there's no TV and no computer doesn't mean he has nothing to do - read a book, or the horrible science magazine that came yesterday, but no, he needs me to help him look for his glasses, yes he could read, play with toys etc. but the fact that his glasses aren't where they should be is driving him nuts and he won't think about anything else until they're found - he's a bit 'eccentric' my child!! very naughty of me to come on the PC while he looks in his room lol! it's probably my fault anyhow, i've lost loads of things this week, his glasses and the TV controller are probably in the bin, along with the money i threw away just before the binmen came! i threw away a receipt from my purse, then took the folded up notes out of my purse to get at the change for spud's boys brigade fee, then instead of putting notes back into my purse i felt the paper in my hand and threw it away, thinking it was the receipt i'd already thrown away!! next morning when he needed money for mufti day at school i wondered why i only had a few coins in my purse, and remembered exactly what i'd done but the bin had been emptied an hour earlier, and i feel like a complete muppet!!! so, it could be worse, you could be as useless as i am

margaretclare

Hi

Girls are no different!!

I know I'm a bit of a freak for green issues, wildlife etc, but what I envy most is people who can get out and walk, who have youth, strength and energy. Well, I don't envy really, I just wish I could walk. Anyway...

This is a beautiful time of the year. And it's wonderful to get out, to see as much as you can. Go to the nearest park and count the birds, look for ladybirds, find some open water and see the water-birds. There are wildflowers growing in the most industrial places - canals near the centre of any big city will have wildlife. Try to identify the flowers, the insects, the birds. Take a cheap drawing pad and a pencil, draw sketches, identify them when you get home.

Your local authority will have activities planned for the holiday. Or church groups. Phone your local Information Bureau (probably at the Town Hall or Civic Centre) and ask what's going on.

I'm finding things to delight and excite me every day just by watching what's going on in the back garden (sparrows now using the block of flats we put up for them earlier in the year!!) And if I was young and fit I would take kids with me, to the local woods, the footpaths, just keep eyes and ears open and you'll be surprised and delighted every day! You just might have a budding David Bellamy on your hands!





Aunty Margaret