If I look back through my summer holiday photos they tell a very different story to this year’s summer holiday.
Summer holiday life used to consist of squeezing in as many memory making opportunities as possible. Rushing around to parks, play areas, theme parks and different activities. To be honest it exhausts me just looking at the photos
Six weeks of driving for miles, endless picnic making and trying to squeeze as much mileage as possible from our limited budget.
Don’t get me wrong, there were some good times. We had some brilliant trips, some amazing holidays and we found some fabulous spots for our holiday fun. But as the kids have gotten older the summer holiday landscape has definitely changed.
The older teen has completed his first year at university and his long summer started with a lads holiday and the rest of the time is work with a couple of festivals thrown in.
The younger teen had his first lads holiday and our bank account will never be the same as a result. He also did his first festival which he loved but now is spending his time chilling out or going to the gym.
My daughter is not an active person naturally. She likes chilling – this involves sitting or lying down mostly – and watching videos on her phone or messaging her friends. She opted not to go on holiday this year as she prefers going to watch musicals, a hobby that I have quickly discovered is also not going to enhance my bank balance. As a result we will be trekking off to London a few times to see a variety of musicals.
All of this is a far cry from the holidays in the past. We still spend time as a family but those times tend to be mealtimes or the occasional walk or cinema visit.
Do I feel sad about this? Not at all, in many ways it is a sign that I have done my job as a parent well. The boys are all growing up and finding their independence which is positive. My daughter will get there too, she changes school in September and has bravely opted to go to a completely new school and to start again, but I am hoping that will be the making of her.
As for us, the grown ups, well this new style of summer hols is quite handy, it means that we can get on with our never-ending list of jobs that we can never do in term time. Exciting stuff, but at least is means that when we all go back to school in September, we will have a few things ticked off. Not exactly making memories but satisfying in its own way.
