The Unwritten Rules Of The Summer Holidays

 

During the second week of the summer holidays, it occurred to me that there must be some unwritten rules that us parents don’t know about. These rules apply to the eating habits of our little darlings. During school time, Oldest has no problem sticking to the school timetable of eating breakfast, morning snack, lunchtime, after-school snack and dinner. Come the holidays and this goes out of the window! The eating routine becomes:

 

• Breakfast

• 1o minutes later more breakfast.

• 10 minutes later breakfast part three.

• 20 minutes later, morning snack.

• 10 minutes later, another snack.

 

You get the gist. It seems that my two are determined to eat me out of house and home. They need feeding constantly. Healthy eating also becomes a foreign language. The fruit bowl remains full, on the other hand we run out of lollies and biscuits on a daily basis.

 

I then started thinking about the other unwritten rules/laws my two seem to be following over the summer holidays:

 

• During school time I have to drag them from their pits. Come the summer holidays they spring from their beds at the crack of dawn. Not at all annoying!

 

• Ice-lollies for breakfast are perfectly acceptable.

 

• Slobbing in front of the TV in your pjs is a must.

 

• One doesn’t get out of their pjs before 12pm, apparently.

 

• Or they declare that getting dressed is a waste of time.

 

• Getting dressed becomes a game of hide and seek from mummy.

 

• The summer holidays means getting out mountains of toys and then failing to put them away. Ever.

 

• Discovering bubbles and demanding that we all go outside and do bubbles. Then coming back indoors. Then demanding 5 minutes later that we go back outdoors for yet more bubbles. Repeat for the rest of the day.

 

• Suddenly all children are allergic to water in bath form.

 

• It is the law for your slightly grubby children to find your lovely clean pile of clothes…..and use them to build a den.

 

• They become the slickest tag-team - taking it in turns to constantly demand things. Oldest asks me to draw a 3-d drawing of Jersey. Just as I have finished and contemplate sitting down…Youngest will shout down to tell me she has done a poo.

 

• Every time we go out we have to buy ice-lollies. It is the law. Obviously.

 

• It is against the law to play with their toys in their bedroom. They bring all their toys downstairs. I now can’t find the sofa.

 

• Bedtime? What’s bedtime? In the holidays there are no strict bedtimes. When you try to enforce one, you are met with cries of -

“it’s too hot”

and

“it’s still light outside!”

 

Do you have any rules that your little ones like to follow during the summer holidays?

 

I should finish with the one unwritten rule that all parents follow over the summer holidays.

 

 

• Make sure that your fridge is stocked with wine and chocolate. Chin, chin.

 

Hope that you are all enjoying the summer holidays. Remember it’s about survival 😉