BORED GAMES
If the summer holidays are a time of dread for you, how do you stop your kids climbing the walls for the final fortnight of the school break? 1
IT’S nearly four weeks into the school holidays and your summer vacation probably seems like a distant memory.
The kids have been chased away from the TV more times than you care to count and even for them the novelty of being at home is starting to wear off.
Add to that the mediocrity of the Scottish summer so far and you’re looking at a nation going stir crazy.
Almost two million parents admit to Fear of the School Holidays and research by family activities app on Hoop.co.uk found more than half of parents say they’re guilty of planning activities at the last minute.
A lack of time, money and inspiration are the most common reasons parents give for failing to find something different to do – which makes nearly half feel guilty, and a quarter feel like a bad parent.
The average parent of children aged under 11 hears “I’m bored” and ‘“Can I watch TV?” more than 400 times during the summer holidays.
Research by TV channel Nick Jr. found the average child uttered their first “I’m bored”, just 10 days into the break, and repeat the phrase around four times a day.
“Summer holidays can be daunting,” said Mumsnet CEO Justine Roberts. “We imagine our children spending six dreamy weeks reading books and playing in balmy weather.
“But in reality, they’re equally likely to involve rows about the PlayStation, horizontal rain and hearing yourself saying, ‘Only boring people get bored’.”
But she added: “Try to remember that six weeks isn’t actually very long and you’ll miss them when they go back to school. Eventually.”
So how should you get your little angels through the next fortnight? Here are Mumsnet’s tips for enjoying what’s left of the summer break: Keep up a semblance of a routine. Normal mealtimes and waking up at some point before midday usually lead to calmer moods all round, and help grownups feel they’re keeping some sort of grip on things. 2 Plan a big, exciting day out to give the kids something to focus on (but make sure you take advantage of any kids-go-free offers). 3 Keep an eye out for free events at local parks and libraries, or subsidised holiday playschemes.
4 A good tiring bike ride, long walk to the pick-your-own farm or a session at a swimming pool usually guarantees you a few hours of peace afterwards. 5 If you have friends in the same boat, make an informal timetable of playdates, so you all get a few mornings or afternoons off to lie down in a dark room.
6 Get a big box of crafting materials together for midafternoon flash points. It’s amazing how much children can be diverted by 12 kitchen roll tubes and a container of glitter.
8 Encourage them to learn something new – the more timeconsuming the better. Knitting, hula-hooping, card games and loom bands would all work.
9 Even if you’re usually pretty strict about screens, summer holidays could be the time to relax the rules and allow them to watch all seven Harry Potter films (with an eye on guidance about age appropriateness, obviously).
10 Don’t be tempted to relax rules about cleaning up though. Make sure they tidy away the previous activity before they start on a new one.