Holiday time

The UK is about to endure holiday madness as the summer comes in, and given that the volcano in Iceland gets to decide who travels and who ends up in holiday hell, all is not easy.

 

Holidays are meant to de-stress people, a time for families to finally get a lie in and play with their kids or spend time with their loved ones. It doesn’t always work out like that, I have been travelling extensively lately and all I have witnessed are angry parents and dishevelled unhappy kids standing in airports screaming at each other.

 

To top it all British Airways are in the middle of yet another staff dispute and flights are called on and off like a cricket match in the spattering rain, it’s so frustrating. Who can we rely on if we can’t depend on the people who took our cash to get us either out to a beach or bring us home!

 

Holidays themselves take such a lot of planning, especially when kids are involved, you need to prepare an itinerary befitting a Royal tour lest the poor mites gets bored or end up poking a crab with a stick for too long.

 

When I was a kid, going away from the stinky tenements of Glasgow was enough, we didn’t need a kids club, a play scheme, a club house or staff dressed as monkeys to entertain us, we usually had a beach, a caravan and a lame donkey that tottered us up and down a rain slashed coastline for fun. The fact our parents were in the same vicinity during daylight hours was enough for us!

 

That was back in the days when fathers spent 50 weeks a year working long shifts in a steel foundry and being flabbergasted when they realised they had four kids that talked all the time who wanted a caravan holiday at a Scottish beach. It was hard for him to adjust and mum didn’t help by pointing out all the things he didn’t know about his unruly bunch. I can still remember my dad trying hard to stay awake in the brief midday sun as I told him a big long story about a lion as my brother demanded he build a kite with him. The two elder kids were bugging him to get up and take us all a walk. He looked like he wanted to run away and throw himself into the sea!

 

Holidays today end up more difficult for working families who don’t usually spend too much time in each others company, what starts out as a good idea ends up a fight in another country. I have watched wives scream at their men to look after the babies as they ‘do that’ 24 hours a day and have witnessed men skulk about angry as their precious two weeks free from work is taken up wiping dirty bottoms and holding a toddler in a paddling pool. Wasn’t this meant to be a ‘holiday’?

 

Statistics have proven that more marriages break up after a holiday and violent episodes can occur when couples go on holiday, that’s not good news is it? The mixture of alcohol, lack of routine and frustration of being stuck together in a hotel room is a recipe for disaster with some families.

Marriage counselling sessions peak at summer time, especially for people who feel they can no longer spend ‘quality’ time together and have recognised that the marriage only works when they don’t actually spend too much time in each others company. That can shake the foundations of a relationship and needs careful understanding and some working through the issues.

 

The pressure of enjoying yourself is right there on the cover of every holiday brochure, with happy young families swinging kids between their arms on a sunlit beach, all with resplendent, relaxed smiles on their happy faked faces. Real life isn’t like that for holiday makers, kids get sun stroke, sick and restless. Couples get bored, frustrated and angry at each other and don’t forget that you have to socialise and the pressures of ‘going out’ every night when you are worried about your kids, can destroy the restful plans.

 

The ideal holiday would be for couples to go on holiday and leave the kids with someone else for a week! It sounds horrid but I’m sure two people could do with a break from the routine as moving the routine to a country that’s hot and stuffy only makes kids cranky and strains relationships.

 

I recall packing for a two week holiday with Ashley when she was three years old, it was like moving house. After the time away I felt I needed a week’s holiday to get over the stress of trying to keep a toddler cool, happy and well fed in a foreign country.

 

So to all those families embarking on their annual holiday’s this coming month- take it easy, don’t scream at each other and try to remember that you are paying a whack of cash for that beach view, so enjoy it.