Half term, half the fun for preschoolers?
It’s half term where I live and while teachers may be breathing a sigh of relief, parents everywhere are on the verge of tearing their hair out.
Childcare, activities, money for activites; are all on the agenda of parents with children at school.
But what about parents of preschool children? Every week is half term for us. Yet when the school holidays come, it means all of our activity groups are stopped.
Aaaaahhhhhh a whole day in the house with a baby or toddler is a long one. Very long.
Who hasn’t taken their toddler out just so they don’t play with their toys that you’ve tidied away for the 78th time in 30 minutes?
Taking them to mums and tots group and the likes is just a good excuse for them to mess somewhere else up. Yet at half term, unless you take them somewhere new, I’m afraid it is mess the house up for a whole seven days.
The problem I find with toddlers is that they’re just a bit too young for the places you would take children of school age. Recently we went to Blackpool Pleasure Beach. Now don’t get me wrong, it is a great place for older children but Boo was too short for most of the rides and the one we did go on made my tummy go funny so goodness knows what it did to hers!
Plus, I shuddered to think what it would be like if you were a family of more than one child and you had to pay for them to get into amusements. I bet we spent more on the weekend in Blackpool than we would have done on a week’s all-inclusive in Spain.
On the other hand however, at least we miss our beloved 8.15am ballet class next Saturday I don’t think Boo will give me a lie in so we will be up from 6am with no dancing to tire her out.
At these times, there are two words which fill parents with both pleasure and horror. Soft. Play. (Ok mostly horror!!)
Yes kids do tend to catch every bug going from there and get trampled on by older children but when it’s raining outside and you need to entertain the troops, it is the only option.
Just make sure you take some paracetamol with you and pick one which sells coffee!
I know what you mean – I always hated it when our groups stopped for the holidays!
We’ve got an action packed half term of play dates planned.
I think the best bet is to try to meet up with other toddler mums – trouble is so many have older children (like me!). Good luck!
I know exactly what you mean. I used to hate it when Cameron’s toddler groups stopped for the holidays. We used to use that time to visit every member of family and friends we had to pass the time.
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Laura
I totally agree! I have a 15 month old and a four year old pre-schooler and I’ve always hated the way toddler groups pack up for the school holidays. I work part time and I don’t really take time off in the holidays if I can help it – I’d rather pay for a childminder for one day a week (when eldest would normally be at pre-school) but I still have to find activities on the days I am off. This week we went to the local garden centre one afternoon and today we did a meet-up with friends at soft play (fortunately, despite the fact that it was rammed, most of the kids did also seem to be other pre-schoolers!) and then to a Botanic Gardens with another friend in the afternoon. The reason I was so relieved to go back to work after maternity was that I always used to feel that I needed to go out with my first son every day (normally twice, morning & afternoon!) because I couldn’t bear to be stuck at home with him for any length of time. And that was during term time too!