Spring is (not quite) here!

Hello lovely parents,

The holidays are very nearly over now, and we start the warm-up to spring (optimistically-speaking!).

Having taken a closer look at the ways in which parents and their children have spent the holiday time, it’s clear that we all have different approaches. There are stay-cationers and travellers, budget-conscious families and big spenders. Even where you live in South Africa can affect how you choose to do holiday times.

Holiday clubs are bigger than I’d realised – places that provide a safe haven for children while that get busy with crafts or baking or some other activity. Not all parents are able to take leave during the holidays, and some choose to offer their child a creative outlet which they may not have access to at home.

I remember the holiday clubs I went to as a child. They were grim and institutional. In between making a teddy bear out of someone’s old clothes, they’d ply us with orange squash while teaching nine-year-old kids artificial resuscitation. I still know how to rescue a drowning brick, if anyone wants to know how to do that. The adventure holiday clubs were better, I learnt how to shoot a bow and arrow, go caving to the echoes of ghoulish ghost stories and how to canoe. Hated the porridge breakfasts, but you can’t have everything, right?

But the clubs I see advertised now are slick; they cater for everything a child could want (and what a parent could want for the child). No being propped up in front of DVDs with inappropriate content, these clubs are fantastic. They make me wish I was young enough to go and join in.

The costs of these are sometimes prohibitive, but, if your only other option is to pay someone to look after your kids or take unpaid leave, then this doesn’t seem too bad.

You can always start a holiday club of your own, if you have an entrepreneurial nature.

If you have older children you could even enlist their help in the next holidays.

For now, it’s time to drop the children at school again and miss them until they come home with their tales of funny teachers and lost lunchboxes…

Good luck for the new term!

Have your kids ever been to a holiday club? We’d love to hear all about it. Send your stories to chatback@parent24.com and you could feature in an article.