School Summer Holidays: Surviving or Thriving?

Have you seen that ‘inspirational’ quote which does the rounds every summer on social media? It tells us; ‘You have 18 summers with your child; make them count’.

Wow.

How to put the pressure on eh!?

I mean, I admit. 18 sounds like a pretty small amount. But let me tell you, when you’re trying to juggle full-time work, a patchwork quilt of childcare, three kids of different ages and needs and six long weeks to fill, those summers feel pretty daunting.

I have put in some summer shifts let me tell you. Those six weeks can feel interminable when you have to entertain them every single day. And the snacks! Dear God: The Snacks. There are never enough snacks. There are never the correct snacks. Honestly something happens to children’s appetites the day school breaks up for summer doesn’t it? For the entirety of the school year, kids have breakfast at say, 7.30am, they might have a piece of fruit at break time, lunch at 12.30 and then another little morsel after school before dinner at 5 or 6pm.

But in the summer holidays, snacks are required approximately every 17th minute from 8am until 10pm; where all that food goes is an anatomical mystery. It’s like living in an episode of Man Vs Food/

I’m onto my eldest sons 15th summer and this year I’ve seen a few big changes… Firstly, he just doesn’t really want to hang out with us all that much. Bizarre I know; given how hilarious and super cool I am!

Secondly, he (in fact all of them) suddenly have started sleeping until around 11am every day, meaning that I actually can be incredibly productive between the hours of 6am and 11am while they snooze half the day away.

When I’ve seen that meme doing the social media rounds this summer it kind of has pulled me up short. I’m coming to the end of those summers with my eldest boy.

Or am I? I’m choosing to look at it as not losing something, but moving into a different phase. And dare I say it, a phase which is way more expensive, but way less stressful.

You see he, and my soon to be 13 year old middle child, yes, view me as a human cash machine but they are becoming so much more independent. Their summers are becoming more about their friends and their freedom than they are about trips to the zoo or funfairs with me. And that’s fine. So far, so developmentally normal.

And although I’m told regularly how crazy I must’ve been to have a third kid; it’s quite lovely to get the chance to do all those trips to the park and beach walks and bike rides with him, just one-to-one. There have definitely been way less sibling spats this summer now that the big two think it’s a fate worse than death to be seen in public with us.

The fact of the matter is though; the school summer holidays here in the UK are just too long. And I say this for many reasons.

There’s the glaring problem that most jobs offer five weeks paid holiday, whilst there are 13 weeks of school holidays; six of them being in the summer. Go figure that one out.

It results in broke parents taking unpaid leave or paying through the nose for camps which finish invariably at 3pm, whilst the working day goes on for most of us, until at least 5pm.

They’re also too long because of the effect on the kids. Being out of their routine for six weeks means it’s torturous trying to get them back into a routine of going to bed at a decent time, in order to drag them out of their pits for that all-important first day back.

Research also shows that for children with additional needs, six entire weeks (and let’s face it it’s always seven, what with in-service days and the like) away from learning means they have so much ground to make up when they get back to school, it can feel like they’re starting from scratch.

I suppose I should stop my whingeing and offer up a prayer of thanks that our system doesn’t operate like Spain, Portugal and Italy, where school summer holidays last in the region of three months. Yup. Three, actual, months.

Holy Moly.

I feel like I’ve played a blinder this summer by booking our holiday away in the final week. There’s something a bit painful about going right at the beginning of summer, then having to sit and watch while everyone on Instagram seems to still be away or have their trip to look forward to. It’s something I think I’ll try and do most summers going forwards. Looking forward to the trip has kept me going throughout the crazy childcare juggle of the past month. I’ve also tried to be pretty mindful of not wishing the school holidays away this year. When you split time with another parent, I do think it has the bonus of making you extra grateful when you have the kids around.

Our upcoming trip to Holland will be our first proper holiday with my partner, and I won’t lie there’s a certain amount of trepidation; on my part, not his. He’s super excited. But then he would be; the fool. He’s never spent a solid week with my lunatic children.

Three wild boys (two of them with all the raging hormones) is not for the faint-hearted. Perhaps next months’ first article will be entitled ‘Why you’re statistically more likely to get dumped whilst on holiday with your kids’...