A holiday to give parents a headache

The October mid-term break is a leftover from our agricultural past, and though children probably do need a rest at this time of year, the week isn't a helpful one for modern parents, writes KATE HOLMQUIST

MID-TERM MAYHEM starts today as more than a million primary and secondary students and more than 50,000 teachers take a break at about the same time as children and teachers throughout northern Europe. The history of needing a break at this time goes back to agricultural times, when children were needed at home to help with harvesting. But with no fields to harvest these days, do we truly need the mid-term break? (And as for politicians, who have two weeks off, aren’t they just jumping on the haywagon for no good reason?)

For the schools, the autumn mid-term break is the one everyone needs, according to Eleanor Petrie, president of the National Parents Council.

“The autumn term is the longest term and children are exhausted by the time we get to this stage, particularly the younger ones in secondary school, who are used to getting out of school at 1.30pm or 2pm and are now in school until 4pm and later,” she says. “The children also benefit from the fact that the teachers benefit and are somewhat refreshed when they come back.”

From the parents’ point of view, though, the week off can be a real headache. “The sort of activities and camps that working parents need to send their children to have doubled and trebled in price,” says Petrie. “There will be a lot of children left to their own devices this week. In the summer there’s some chance of getting out and about, but this time of year it’s dark.”

Denmark and Sweden are way ahead of Ireland, she says, when it comes to providing safe, interesting, supervised activities, either free or very cheap, for children and teenagers outside school hours. “As a society we have not learned to cope with the fact that the vast majority of children have both parents out at work,” Petrie says.

She suggests that parents could get together to take turns providing a day out for their children and their childrens’ friends during the break, rather than each family paying for an expensive camp or childminder – although this would take some organisation.

WHEN THE standardised school break we now have was introduced five years ago, there were protests from parents and teachers alike, who pointed out that having all schools close at the same time was basically a licence to print money for the travel industry, which could put up its prices for the week when everyone wanted to go away.

So have the tour operators benefited this year? Yes and no. This year, mid-term holidays were booked up before the end of September and tour operators have completely filled their capacity, says Kevin Nolan, president of the Irish Tour Operators Federation. On the other hand, they had already reduced their capacity by about 30 to 40 per cent, lowering profits.

Operators have also suffered from the fact that the UK and most of Europe have the same mid-term break, making hotels more expensive. But nothing is as bad for them as Ireland’s February mid-term break, which since last year has been at the same time as Dutch, German and British schools, driving the price of ski packages into the stratosphere. Again, it’s the providers at the ski resorts who benefit more than the tour operators, who have tight margins to remain competitive.

Nor is the domestic holiday market getting the boost it might have hoped for from the mid-term break. This year, booking for self-catering houses is down by 15-20 per cent, despite rates that are 20 per cent lower than last year, says David Barry of Trident Holiday Homes. But local businesses in tourist areas are trying to make hay by running Halloween kids’ camps.