Kids or no kids, we all love the school holidays yeah? I mean, what\u2019s not to love? Long warm days, open roads, days packed with insta-worthy activities with polite, respectful, quiet children [clears throat].<\/p>\n
Total bollocks!<\/p>\n
\u201cBut surely that\u2019s what other families are doing? Just look at their social media feeds! They look like they\u2019re having SO much fun eating from their John Lewis wicker hamper in their top-to-toe Joules outfits.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Nope. They captured a moment (more by luck than anything else) and decided to share it with the world to make them seem like a \u2018normal\u2019 family! (An issue that will be tackled further in our forthcoming \u2018social media curation vs mental health\u2019 blog!)<\/p>\n We are lucky enough to live in Cornwall, and it\u2019s utterly beautiful; but the school holidays are especially precious here. We have traffic jams INTO Cornwall, traffic jams OUT of Cornwall, traffic jams everywhere IN Cornwall, queues at theme parks, queues at restaurants, queues, queues, queues, and more bloody queues! Anyone that knows me well knows I don\u2019t queue graciously! (Oh, you picked that up?)<\/p>\n So with the impending half term school holidays, I am feeling anxious about all of the above, plus the pressure of giving my daughter decent opportunities to have a memorable and exciting holiday, that doesn\u2019t peak at going to the cinema! It\u2019s fricking October. Heeeelp!<\/p>\n So, I have embraced this as a challenge and have come up with a survival plan for an October staycation with the kids. I hope you find it useful!<\/p>\n You know those families who seem to know about all the cool stuff going on in your locality, and you are all\u00a0\u201chow do they know about this stuff! I never saw it advertised!\u201d.<\/em>\u00a0In fact, the first time you hear about it is when you see it on your social media feed 16 hours later with a barrage of comments about how great it was, and how much everyone\u2019s kids loved it! Grrrr! So, be proactive and ask for suggestions on your social media or via old-school text\/email as early as you can. Trawl the internet for events that happened this time last year as they may be happening again this year! Pick up local glossies that publicise events in your area. Post in forums and groups, and ask at the school gates. There are always loads of local things going on, but marketing is often a stranger to local events committees!<\/p>\n I am not sure of many people (especially those who have ensured looong sleepless nights) who haven\u2019t yet develop a chronic Pinterest habit, but on the off chance that this may be enlightening to someone, Pinterest is a great resource for kid-spiration. Type in \u2018rainy day kids activities\u2019 and wring your hands with glee as you wait for the weighty page to load. Bursting with both practical and (utterly) impractical activities, it can really help to get the creative juices flowing when it comes to keeping the kids out of trouble. Oh, and most of the activities on there carry weighty Insta-opportunities too. Win, win!<\/p>\n Boring! Yep, but bear with me on this! [Clears throat again] THIS IS YOUR HOLIDAY TOO! Plan ahead for low prep, maximum mummy-credit meals. Think build-your-own, filthy chuck-in-the-oven food. Hands on, messy grub that kids love! Even better why not get your kids to pick meals from those hugely underused recipe books and get them cooking for you! (Providing they are age appropriate for using knives, boiling water and hot, spitting fat \u2026 on second thoughts!). In all seriousness, whether kids are left to their own devices, or whether supervised, there is a recipe out there for them that will give you both food (win) and wholesome kiddie entertainment (win).<\/p>\n Always a winner, and often an opportunity for a well deserved cuppa with a friend. Plan ahead though because holiday calendars book up fast.<\/p>\n After the tears, the \u2018I don\u2019t want to go, it\u2019s cold\u2019\u00a0<\/em>conversations and the frantic search for the missing welly have ceased, getting out into the woods or onto the beach always turns into a winner provided the weather isn\u2019t too nasty. A particular favourite is to take brightly wrapped sweets and go on ahead and hide them for the kids to find on their stomp. Bribing them with sweets may not make me the wholesome parent I wanted to be, but the kids see it as fun and it gets them running around, exploring and discovering things that they wouldn\u2019t have seen before. I\u2019m not apologising for that!<\/p>\n We don\u2019t have a lot of money, and certainly can\u2019t afford day-after-day of expensive theme parks, and the subsequent overpriced up-sells, drinks and food (plus I couldn\u2019t handle that many queues!). So we usually plan to have one BIG day out in the half term holidays and make a grand thing of it. The kids look forward to it more, and it gives them an anchor point for their holiday. Plus, (and I always forget this) you CAN take picnics to most places so getting prepared is never a bad thing. There are often discount vouchers for the holidays as well if you look around.<\/p>\n\n
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