Family Encyclopedia >> Work

Summer holiday for the children:this is how Hilde experiences the holiday

Just a few more days… and then it's summer vacation for the kids. It lasts 2 months for us. Or exactly 9 weeks or 64.5 days. Immensely long!

Well, I will be glad that I finally don't have to set the alarm anymore, although my own Girl Alarm Clock will wake me up on time and much too early. But the idea that everything no longer has to be done according to the clock and in a hurry, that saves a lot of hassle.

But 2 months is really a long time to bridge! I am a stay at home mom, so basically they can stay with mom for 2 months. But then they are already at each other's throats after less than 2 days and in less than a week they are already whining "when does school start again?" and Mama is completely exhausted.

Throughout the year I collect all kinds of things to fill school days with:game books, craft materials, crosswords, wool to crochet, coloring pictures, paper,… all spread out from shops where there is some action. But you don't fill a whole summer holiday for the children with that.

So… the kids go out too. Son goes on a soccer camp to the Netherlands with his friends, for 5 days, and on circus week in his sister's circus school. And in between he goes to Speelplein for a few days, because there are also children from his school whose parents go to work there. Daughter goes to the foster mom, so she also maintains social contact. But that too is only 15 days of 'occupational therapy'. And very spread out.

It is and remains a challenge

For myself, as a not-so-healthy mom, it's hard to keep the kids busy every day. And in the past I had a special young lady who came to help me in the summer. Half days, tinkering, painting, playing, to the beach, to the playground… an extra pair of eyes is always handy! But young girls also get bigger, and that's how our sweetest babysitter got to work. We have been looking for a replacement for quite some time now. But of course you don't just find that. Someone who comes to look after 1 special girl and 1 bigger brother at an affordable rate while mommy has a rest.

In the future, of course, we hope to receive the requested PGB, so that it may be easier to find childcare for the youngest, and to bridge the summer for her, because the foster mom would be retiring next year. We always find something to do for the oldest.

But yes… 2 months is really long! And yet I'm counting down a little… To the sun, to clothes-on-in-the-pool, to a garden full of clutter, to rest for the children, and above all… to my alarm in my phone that should no longer ring not to forget that I have to go get the kids!

And I already know… on the first day of school, I'm sitting here orphaned, all alone in my quiet house. Waiting for my children 😉

Also read:activities during the summer holidays for the children