From farm furlough to mind-bogglingly boring break

I love holidays. I love discovering a new destination. To explore new places or to end up on some remote beach after a beautiful hike in unknown surroundings. Or just to chill by a pool, pretending to read a funny book but really just watching (and judging!) what lovely choice of Speedos people have made.

Holidays bring the joy of doing nothing and just letting yourself become engulfed by pure relaxation. But we don’t just like holidays, we need them. They are necessary to untangle ourselves from our daily stress of jobs and kids and administrative stuff: the busy daily routine. Holidays bring change from the ordinary and it’s this change that gives us new energy, brings new insights and recharges us.

So, am I a fan of holidays? Hell yes! Do I want the Luxembourgish summer holiday to be a lot shorter? Abso-bleeping-lutely! Huh? What? Really? Yes! Holidays should be made shorter in order not to undermine their purpose, which is relaxation. Let me explain.

The summer holiday wasn’t invented for the sake of relaxation. Summer ‘holiday’ dates back to a long time ago when it wasn’t a holiday. Children were just kept out of school by their parents to help on the farm, you know, hay-making and suchlike.

In the Netherlands (I am Dutch, therefore this reference), the schooling law dating back to 1900 says that a maximum time of absence from school of six weeks was allowed to help on the farm. It basically was furlough for agricultural activities. Over time this ‘furlough’ has morphed into free time, aka holidays. I think the same goes for Luxembourg. Except for the length because children here have around eight and a half (!) weeks of summer holidays. That’s a lot of time for hay-making...

So what started as time out of school to work changed into free time. We should therefore reconsider how much free time or holiday time we really need and want – for our kids. Eight and a half weeks is a long time and for most people that poses many challenges: practical, financial and emotional.

First of all, except for two mums that I know of who negotiated an unpaid leave of absence from their work every summer, most people do not have that luxury. So, let’s assume that the majority might take two, maybe three weeks of holiday. That leaves six weeks of having to find a solution for the children at home.

Side note: if you are stuck in a shitty marriage, the long summer is just the thing for you: you take off three weeks at a different time than your partner and you will probably have the time of your life away from your not-so-exciting-anymore-spouse.

But assuming your marriage is a happy one, you’ll need to get creative or spend money. Or both. Some send their kids to camps for several weeks; some send them to grandparents. I had a French teacher who sent his kids to his parents for five weeks! But that’s a long time to part from your kids.

You could also team up with five friends with whom you can do an exchange. One has all the kids on Monday, another has them all on Tuesday, and so on. But to be honest, I’ve never heard anyone do this. I suggested it last year to friends to make home schooling during lock-down a bit easier, but nobody was interested.

That leaves a financial consequence: parents will have to pay for their children to be taken care of. For children that means that summer is hardly different than any other time of the year, as they are stuck in a creche or a day care centre. Or they are sent from one camp to the next. Hardly a relaxed summer holiday, but what else can parents do?

Loiterers

But my objection to this long summer break goes beyond parents. My main concern is with the children.

Too much free time on their hands makes them bored! It may lead to a bit of creativity in the beginning of the holidays, but not for weeks on end (and don’t listen to old people who claim they used to love long summer holidays playing with friends. They have just blocked the many moments of boredom and absolute lethargy out of their memories – don’t trust them!).

Too much boredom is even problematic. We all know the word loitering. Loiterers are not known for their philosophical tendencies or their spontaneous ‘let’s-rid-our-town-from-garbage-lying-around’-ideas. Loitering leads to mischief and that in turn will lead to youth delinquency. Really! Although I don’t have numbers on that…

Stupidity

Where a pause might be nice and necessary to relax from hard work, long hours of studying and stress from tests, I am sure that very long breaks are good for nothing and even detrimental to the brain.

Already halfway through the holiday, my kids have forgotten most of their French, are incapable of calculating 2 x 3 and think that Portugal and Norway share a border.

If the holidays would last any longer, our kids would turn into drooling idiots, covering themselves in mud and peeing in the neighbour’s garden. Long holidays make them forgetful, and even... yes, I’ll go on and say it… stupid.

Bad parenting

Finally, and please do not get upset with me as I am very fond of my kids and love spending time with them. But I am a stay-at-home mum and for me the summer holiday is not my favourite time.

Nine weeks without a break!

Sure, we have our fun, we chill in the garden, go for picnics, leave the country to find new adventures and have our family holiday outside of Luxembourg.

But once my husband is back at work and my creativity is done and over with, we still have five weeks left. And these weeks can get very dreary. Nasty even. And that can lead to bad parenting.

Just follow the logic here: bored and mischievous children tend to annoy their parents. Very bored and mischievous children will drive parents insane and angry. Anger has hardly ever led to anything constructive. It only leads to yelling parents, or parents that leave their kids to play online games all day long or leaving children in front of the TV for days on end. None of which are good. So, you see, bad parenting.

Ergo, with summer holidays leading to practical challenges, financial implications, loitering, stupidity, bad parenting and the opposite of relaxation, who in their right mind would not consider shortening the summer holidays?