Why you shouldn't peak too early in the school holidays! – Mummascribbles

It’s the February half term break. It’s not my first set of school holidays – Zach is in Year 1 so I have done all of this before. It’s only a week off so I didn’t feel like I needed to fill it with exciting things – I’ll save that for the longer Easter ones. But I did make one set of plans. And those plans were for Monday.

They consisted of meeting up with a couple of my Mum friends. Their sons are Oscar’s besties, and they both have older children that Zach gets on really well with. We had decided to head up to Rye-assic Adventure Park in Hoddesdon for their half term fun. For £14.99, the older kids got to have soft play fun, make a pizza, do some bowling, have a game of Nerf wars, and then eat their handmade pizzas that had been cooked for them. And then they got to hang around in the soft play afterwards because it hadn’t got busy enough to cap sessions.

We were there from 9.30am until 1pm. We had paid for the little ones to have soft play fun, and they all did really well when they had to come with us to what the older ones were doing. They all had so much fun.

Too much fun!

When I sent some photos over to the other half of all the fun they were having, his response was,

Going to be hard to top today, the rest of this half term

And boy was he right! I peaked too soon. I planned the most exciting day right at the beginning. What the heck was I thinking?

So Tuesday comes around and the questions start…

Where are we going today Mummy?

Oh god!

I suggested we go up to our favourite park for their half term fun, and it was met with happy cheers. So we went up there, went to the mound, Oscar got soaking wet because he thought it was ok to go down on his bum and so I had to shove him under the hand-driers in the toilets. At this point, Zach asked if it was time to go home because he was done. I reminded him that we hadn’t even been into the mini zoo bit where the half term fun was actually happening. So we went in, we made some bird feeders (which I have just remembered are still sat under the buggy), looked round the animals, and then took part in their story time, which happened to be Oscar’s fave story Every Bunny Dance, and it followed with a meet and feed of their two rabbits.

The boys did have fun, but it was all over by midday because Oscar needed a nap (he hadn’t had a proper one the day before and instead had unexpectedly conked out on the sofa for a power nap). It definitely wasn’t an epic time had like the previous day.

And ahead of me, I have Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. And I have no plans. The other half is working from home for two days which is wonderful, but it does mean I have to keep stopping the boys from wanting to go upstairs and see Daddy at regular intervals. It is also quite handy though, because I need to have a quick client call and so he can watch the boys while I do!

And then on Friday, my Mum is over. Again – no set plans other than a library trip. And yet every morning will be met with, “where are we going today”, and no day will be as awesome as that first one. I mean they keep asking to go to Paradise Wildlife Park, but we are planning to go there on Saturday!

And so my message to you school parents is this.

Don’t peak too soon.

If you are going to have one epic day in a week of school holidays, do it in the middle – or even better at the end. Go out with a bang. Don’t make it look like the holidays are going to be the most fun ever, and then have to deal with the disappointment that comes with those following days when you get up and have no idea what you are going to be doing.

I even got the Lego out to try and make Tuesday afternoon fun. Except after five minutes, Oscar was trying to throw it on the floor, and after ten minutes he was trying to destroy Zach’s building and then fell off the dining table while he was doing so. It was hell!