Beating the school holiday boredom blues
Unpredictable bad weather, expensive childcare and lots of bored children.
The final stretch of the school holidays will see parents’ mettle tested as they head back to work and leave children to their own devices.
Schoolchildren still have at least two weeks left before they return to the classroom on February 3 and this can cause a dilemma for families where both parents are working.
That’s unless you have a strong support network or grandparents you can rope in to look after the children, according to mother-offour Nikola Sutton.
The stay-at-home mum acknowledged that keeping her children entertained is a daunting task, so she doesn’t know how families cope when both parents work.
‘‘I can’t imagine it, as it must be incredibly hard and exhausting,’’ said Sutton.
Her family made a deliberate decision for her to look after the children fulltime while her husband worked and described this as a ‘‘big sacrifice’’.
The Suttons look for activities that cost little or no money, such as going to the beach and visiting friends.
But not everybody has that luxury and therefore working families will need to rely on babysitters and holiday programmes that can end up costing up to $80 per child per day.
Despite the looming bad weather, which promises to bring downpours across the country this week, most of these holiday programmes operate throughout January.
Conscious Kids’ ‘‘100 per cent nature-based’’ holiday programmes around Auckland were in heavy demand, said director Maria Mariotti.
‘‘We are really lucky to live in New Zealand. Aotearoa truly is a wonderful and magnificent natural playground. No-one can get bored in the outdoors here.’’
Their programmes start at 9 am and finishes around 4 pm at a cost of $60 per child or $270 per week.
Meanwhile, Kind Mind Kids NZ founder Raluca Cozariuc’s holiday programme takes it a step further by offering a ‘‘screen-free holistic programme’’ that focuses on ‘‘nurturing creativity, love of nature, mindfulness and yoga’’.
‘‘We start each morning with mindfulness meditation and finish each day with a gratitude circle in the hope that the kids leave our programme more aware of themselves as well as the impact on the environment,’’ said Cozariuc.
However, Mariotti believed children should be allowed to become bored once in a while. ‘‘Let kids be bored. Out of boredom comes creativity and children will create amazing games and adventures out of boredom.’’