One week into the summer holidays and I’ve already reached a conclusion. This isn’t going to be about keeping my children entertained. It’s going to be about keeping me sane.

Like every parent, I started the holidays with the best intentions. We’d have beach days, bike rides, movie nights, and maybe even one of those magical afternoons where everyone gets along and nobody asks for a snack every 12 minutes.

That dream lasted until roughly Tuesday.

As the mum of two girls who are now firmly in that pre-teen and teenage stage of life, I’ve realised some thing has changed.

They don’t actually want me to entertain them anymore. They want their friends.

The requests aren’t really, “Can we go shopping?” or “Can we go into town?” What they’re really asking is, “Can I spend time with my friends?”

The shopping, the milkshakes, and the beach are just the excuse.

And somewhere between hearing “I’m bored” for the 20th time and mentally calculating the cost of another summer camp, it struck me that maybe we’ve been looking at the summer holidays the wrong way.

Don’t get me wrong. Camps have their place. They can be brilliant, especially when parents are juggling work. But they don’t need to fill every week, and children don’t necessarily want every hour organised either.

Summer is supposed to feel different. It’s supposed to have room for lazy mornings, spontaneous adventures, and the kind of freedom that children........

© Evening Echo