Vacation: Extra Activities

[AllisonR]

When you have holiday with your kids, and not traveling, what kind of activities do you do? And how much?

For example, if you had two week vacation together, and were not taking a trip, how often would you go to a museum, park, show, the movies, playgrounds.... I mean anything from taking a bike ride in the woods, going shopping and having an ice cream, seeing a puppet show, going to an amusement park, meeting friends at the library for story time... What I do not mean is normal stuff inside the house or playing in the front or back yard. I mean more doing some specific activity. Does not have to be fancy, just something. 

Our 4 and 6 yo have a two week vacation. DH took off one week and I took off the next. We could not both take off, as we have used our vacation days in June instead. But how we spend the time with the kids is vastly different. Usually we really respect each other and just let each other do things their own way. Because even if we don't always agree with the other, we find out that it works out just fine the way the other parent chooses to parent. But this time DH and I are in huge disagreement, which is freaky weird as we agree on so much, or just agree to disagree, that this has thrown me for a loop. One of us thinks we need to be out and doing something, regardless of what that something is. The other feels that the kids should be able to entertain themselves more at home and do not need all the activities. I'll say later who feels what. 

[4evermom]

I think both ways are fine.  If the kids are cranky and bored and the at-home parent is ignoring them, I might think something more active is in order.  But many kids don't get to just hang at home and be with their things often, not having to rush off to school/camp.  So they might really like not having anything scheduled.  But they'd probably love some special activities with the at-home parent, too.

If we weren't at home most of the time, I could see not doing a darn thing.  But I might get out a couple times during the week to take advantage of something that's hard to schedule or that I didn't have the energy for at other times.

[crowcaw]

We go out almost everyday.  Sometimes just a playground or the beach, other times museums, zoo, botanical gardens....  But the outing isn't an all day thing, usually just a few hours, and the rest of the day when they're home there's no screen time so they still have plenty of hours to entertain themselves.  But we don't live in a house with a big yard or access to outdoor play space that they can get to by themselves.  If we did, it would probably be different.  Though honestly, getting out is as much for me as them. 

[Vancouver Mommy]

We live in a great neighbourhood with great kids so we enjoy spending lots of time at home where the kids play together and roam around (half a block in either direction, while I drink coffee on the porch). I find that a few minutes of boredom (or as we call it, undirected play) often leads to an afternoon of imaginative, cooperative play that would never occur if their days were entirely scheduled. It's amazing how kids still can entertain themselves for hours with a cardboard box and a lawn chair (or some such combination).

[*bejeweled*]

We're very similar to Vancouver Mommy. We take DD (age 8) out to classes mostly. She has weekly piano and horse riding. During the summer only, she's taking Tae Kwon Do. Otherwise, she plays with the neighbor kids and they have a blast. So, we're mostly homebodies, but get out of the house a few hours most days. I think if mine were ages 4 and 6, I'd be mostly home. For sure.

Originally Posted by Vancouver Mommy 

We live in a great neighbourhood with great kids so we enjoy spending lots of time at home where the kids play together and roam around (half a block in either direction, while I drink coffee on the porch). I find that a few minutes of boredom (or as we call it, undirected play) often leads to an afternoon of imaginative, cooperative play that would never occur if their days were entirely scheduled. It's amazing how kids still can entertain themselves for hours with a cardboard box and a lawn chair (or some such combination).

[Peony]

We tend to be on the go very frequently even during school breaks. For several reasons really. My oldest has never ever been the type of child that could entertain herself beyond a minute, and I get tired of constantly doing it. When she was younger I thought it was because she was small but now I realize it is just her personality. She does numerous sports so in every season there is always something going on. Now my oldest two fight constantly which is lessened by being out. And we have very few neighborhood children, it is mostly older couples so we go to parks to seek out other children to play with. We go out at least once a day, it isn't uncommon to hit the skatepark in the morning, go to a regular park, go home for a few hours and then go swimming at the rec center in the afternoon. 

[fritz]

DS and I are introverts with low social needs, and DS gets carsick very easily, so unless it's something close by, we happily stay home.  Earlier this summer when DH took a week off work, we drove into the city to go to the science museum (where we hadn't been in over a year).  However, dealing with the construction and traffic and horrible parking garages was rather traumatic, so it'll be a very long time before we bother making that trek again.  (We're not city people.)

A couple weeks ago when DH took another week off (he's got a lot of vacation time to burn right now), I think we went bowling one day.  We all love to bowl, but it costs money, so we rarely go.  We did go to the tennis courts (free) 3 times, but that was more of a me and DH thing where DS was forced to tag along. 

We love our home environment.  But even my social butterfly extroverted DH can only handle so much out-and-about stuff, so we're never over-scheduled.  We just find it exhausting and stressful to be frequently going someplace else and doing something else.

[mamazee]

I think either way is fine. There is no "should" in this case, IMO.

[meemee]

Allison i am a coparent. 

we are vastly different in personality. 

i am the going out person. ex is a stay home kinda guy.

i think we compliment each other very much. 

however dd's personality is party girl. so in summer she gets to stay more with me coz we are 1. in a child friendly neighbourhood so have a lot happening just at home (plus we constantly have sleepovers with friends kids coming over) 2. we found a fun art activity to do so dd enjoys going 3 days a week.

i dont see why each of you dont do your thing. one of you stay home for the week with the kids. the other week the going out parent takes them out for fun stuff to do. i mean yeah you wont get to do camp...

but also i notice with dd's personality she usually needs a week off after school to just settle down into her non school going routine. this time for the first time she went to camp right out of school, but then took another week to settle down to vacation mode.

so honestly in our house, two weeks really is not a vacation. its a break. and during break - like xmas break we dont plan anything. usually something comes up and we go do something if we find it interesting. so we dont really plan to go out, nor do we plan to stay home. whatever comes up we go do. 

however a 3 month summer vacation - is a whole different story and its a combination for us. 

i love seeing dd during this time. she goes back to her natural routine and is soo relaxed and not throwing tantrums or being moody as she is during school days. she is soooo much better behaved during vacation. she is at her worst a month before school goes out for summer. 

by the way if by activity you mean camp rather than an event we discovered, we didnt do anything till this year. however our summers have always been FULL (and i need a rest after summer is over) because usually we constantly have kids visiting us almost all of summer. we've always had access to a pool so summer is mostly about swimming a few hours almost every day. 

[sarahr]

We go out for at least a short time every day. That's as much for my sanity as anything else. But I wouldn't think someone was a bad parent who did something different.

[pbjmama]

I like to get out with my kids about every day. But I'm a sahm so it is almost like every day could be 'holiday'.

I'm going to guess this goes back to a family of origin issue. Just different expectations based on what was important or valued when one was growing up.

[Daffodil]

I voted about every other day, but it might be a bit more than that.  Summer is so short here and there are so many things the kids and I want to do that we generally try to fit in a lot of activities.  And whenever it's really hot, we like to get out at some point during the day to cool off in the water.  Sometimes we just go down to the river bordering our property, but for variety we also like to go to my sister's pond or various lakes or swimming holes.  But I think just staying home most of the time is fine, too, unless your home is extraordinarily boring.