Although both my kids are in school, it seems like every few weeks they have holidays. Sometimes it’s just a day or two, but then they have two recesses every school term. As much as we love to travel and do fun things, we are not Ri¢hie Ri¢h’s parents. And yes, I am a stay-at-home-mom, but I’m not a cruise director. So, rather than view every school break as a great opportunity to visit all the local museums (and in NYC, that alone could occupy weeks), or explore whatever other wonders this city offers–I cannot always be bothered to plan excellent adventures.
Honestly, sometimes I see a week off school as a great opportunity to NOT have to do anything. Instead, I treat every day like it’s a lazy Sunday.
Here’s a rundown of what we did during the kids’ last school holiday:
- We relaxed all the rules and blew off the schedule. Bedtimes were later, baths were pushed off, and my children ate (and looked) like Hobbits.
- All the meals were of the easy/yummy (/nutritionally questionable) variety.
- PJs all day? Why not?
- Unlimited video games? Pretty much.
- Binge watching our favorite shows and movies? Absolutely.
- Every board game pulled out and played? Yep.
- Every costume and toy rediscovered and played with? It sure looked like it.
- Every chair, pillow, and blanket used to create epic forts? At least once every day.
By the end, our apartment was a disaster zone because I didn’t even bother tidying up every night.
We did take advantage of some nice weather to go out to the play park and run around, of course. We went for long scooter sessions, and even spent a few hours practicing the fundamentals of baseball.
Obviously, my children still bickered and I still had to be the grownup. The thing is, doing nothing much for a week was really relaxing, in the same way that running around doing all the fun things is rather exhausting. That’s true for kids as well as parents. This time, at the end of 11 days we were all ready for school to start. We didn’t need those extra days you always long for after a vacation.
My advice? For the next school break, do a whole lot of nothing.
