Guest Post: Plan for the summer holidays now

The summer holidays are coming and in no time at all the children will be off school for six whole weeks!

Of course it is lovely to spend more time with your children; it is the perfect opportunity for you to enjoy time with them doing things that the school-time calendar and rainy weather does not usually allow. The other side of the coin is that having your children around you twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week can be hard work and at times even stressful – this is where planning can take the sting out of the summer holidays.

My husband and I are separated and agreed that during the divorce advice we received we would keep each other informed of one another’s plans with regards to the children. At first the thought of having to plan every detail filled me with dread but slowly realised that the planning was actually allowing us to fit more into each day and consider more carefully what we wanted to do.

Children are usually forthcoming in telling you what they want to do which is fine to a point. My eldest is regretfully culturing an interest in football, no doubt encouraged by his best friend at school, so he will always want to go to the park. My youngest is happy to do anything or go anywhere – as long as it involves Peppa Pig. There are only so many hours you can fill with Peppa Pig and football so it is important to engage them with other things too.

In my experience of having been a nanny for eight years and a mother of two, nothing captures the interest and imagination of children of any age like a trip to the zoo. The last time I suggested a trip to the zoo my eldest groaned and counter suggested a game of football instead. Within ten minutes of being at the zoo she had forgotten all about football and was pleading with me to get her a pet lemur. We compromised on a cuddly toy one from the gift shop instead.

Zoos are more often than not largely outdoor affairs and therefore unwise choices in poor weather. Given the unreliability of the British summer it is always worth having a contingency plan; I have a large box full of card, glue, glitter, pens and other art and crafts bits and pieces. 

I have a (secret) list on which I have listed all the different outdoor and indoor activities all sub-divided into the approximate cost as I have invariably found that in the fifth week of having the children away from school my purse becomes much lighter.

Guest post by Kat Prescott on behalf of Co-op Legal