Kids Holiday Clubs

So here we are, another holiday.  Yes, it is winter and in Cape Town it means rain and miserable weather for most of the time.  Time for lighting up the fireplace, bake pancakes, built indoor tents out of mom's blankets and pillows.  Lots of movies in whatever format, reading books under the blankets, sleeping late and playdates.

Except for one problem.  The gymnastic class has a holiday club for week one, our church a soccer clinic.  The art teacher is doing something, or the whatever activity is practicing for exams/performance.  And so the list grows with every holiday. The more activities people come up with the more holiday clubs there seem to be. I mean, my two boys have more invites for holiday clubs than what there days in the holiday!

Everyone who is anyone is trying to keep our kids busy, because "what do you do with them at home for 3 weeks?!  Give them to us and we'll keep them busy." ('Plus, if you go on holiday, we don't get pay, because we don't plan ahead for salaries when it is school holidays.' they never say openly.)

Now, don't get me wrong.  I don't have anything against it as such, but if my kids do every one of the holiday clubs they want to do, we will all be exhausted after the holidays.  I mean isn't that what school holidays are about?  Having a break from learning things?  Having the time to actually PLAY?  Or has PLAY become the new 4 letter word our kids mustn't utter?

Have our society become so obsessed with 'success' that our kids are no longer allowed to be kids?  When last did your kids stand outside in the rain, bare feet, catching raindrops on their tongues.  Or you allowed them to take over the lounge to built a fort from your blankets and sheets?  When last did you have a million kids over to your house, and it is not your child's birthday party, just because it is fun to watch them all play?

Our kids get little enough time for it when school is on, and now we fill their holidays as well?  And not with playdates and friends and silly picnics and family times, but with paid activities that will teach them and improve them...

I too, struggle with this.  My kids would want to do every holiday club they hear about, purely because the coaches makes it sounds as if the kids will loose out big time if they don't attend.

I can't say no to church activities, because it makes me feel less like a Christian, and I'm letting my kids into doom.  (OK, that does not really come from the church side, but more my personal guilt trip inbred over years of traditionalist religion.) 

If I don't let my kids follow the holiday clubs for their activities, they make me feel that I am not serious enough about the activities.  So I must be a bad mother, because I don't see the need for my child to have a chance at excelling in his activity.

OK, lets stop the bus and rethink all this...  Where is my ramblings leading us too?

It has let me to realize that, my kids don't need to go to every holiday club.  They need to play at home and with friends.  They need to hang out as a family with family friends.  They need to have 3 weeks of unscheduled days.  Where the only thing planned is how to built the sheet tent without it collapsing on them. Or how to catch that frog hiding in the pond... (apart from saving me a lot of money)

So what is the blessing?  The blessing of sending your kid on holiday club activities, can be many.  Not all aspects of holiday clubs are bad. There is a lot of good in some of them.  They are great for parents who still has to work while the holidays are on.  And church clubs are great for spreading the gospel.  I don't say don't send your kids.  Just rethink why you do it.

The blessing to me (and I hope to you too) is that after all these ramblings, I realize how easy one can get caught in thriving for success for our kids.  Or even how easy it is to just let go of them so that I can give attention to MY things, having uninterrupted ME time.  I've seen how quickly we get steamrollered into doing what other people tells us is right for our kids and doing what they tell us to do, because we don't want our kids to miss out.  And in the mean time we allow our kids to miss out on their childhood... 

Enjoy your child's childhood with them this holiday.  Try not to be too busy not to have some fun.

Happy holidays people.  

From
Little old me.