The Summer Break is approaching, it is officially my first as the mother of a schoolchild. I’m not exactly dreading the length of time my offspring and I will be forced to spend together (I might be) but I am considering how to keep him occupied every day without resorting to just offering up the iPad and my password every afternoon for a bit of quiet.

I imagine a lot of parents are considering the same right now. Don’t get me wrong there is plenty to do around here during the holidays, in fact you can’t move for workshops, plays, activity days and clubs (some expensive, some free) and instead of thinking about work I am trying to book in for as much as I can just so we have plans and days filled.

I know I’ll be seeing a few familiar faces too as I do the rounds. I remember a few years ago as I was at yet another kiddie workshop seeing a mother with quite an unusual handbag and thinking that I liked it. A few weeks later in the bar of Komedia at yet another Under-5s play I spotted the same bag and though how weird to see two of them, of course it wasn’t two separate bags it was the same bag, same mother. I nodded to her. I saw her and her bag again a month later at yet another Baby Loves Disco.

Soon I started seeing the same mums from nursery, the same kids from the park, the same frustrated dad who couldn’t park outside the library at nearly every event and venue I was dragging my son to. The same faces on the circuit of kids activities that take place throughout the year, you’ll see us picking up brochures and leaflets in libraries, centres and schools, stopping to look at posters in the street, queuing up outside pottery cafes during half term and hurrying the streets going from event to event during the Brighton Fringe with a kid in tow. You can mark us out because our purses all have a round, yellow sticker from Middle Farm stuck on them.

Our kids get older but the events just evolve, we can go to the cinema now to see the newest animated release and we’ve even taken in a bit of comedy – a guy whose act was aimed squarely at 7yr olds and involved a long sequence about lollipop ladies and scooters. Would have been great with a glass of wine or two.

I don’t believe any of us do it for our own enjoyment? I do it to satisfy myself I’m an active and encouraging mum yes but I don’t really want to shout out ‘Yes Mr Donkey’ or allow my face to be painted for fun.  I watch my son’s face to check he is having fun rather than what’s actually going on most of the time. One particular low point came one Easter watching grown adults dressed as chickens and rabbits running around our local pub screaming. I caught the eye of the poor venue manager who was working the lights, we shared a sympathetic look, he’d sat through it three times but he didn’t then have to partake in the egg hunt afterwards – we all have our crosses to bear.

Sometimes I try to nod off when I can but I do have to be on my guard as my son does like to participate, if a clown, comedian, magician or actor asks for anyone to come up on stage my boy is first in line. He’s been spinning plates and balancing apples on his head for audiences in these parts since he was 3. So I suppose he is getting something out of it all. And that’s the thing - in my quest to educate and entertain I can’t help but think he’d be a bit happier if he was just left alone sometimes to play a bit of Candy Crush or watch a DVD with a bit of cake on the sofa instead of being dragged off to another storytelling session at the library.  Maybe we could both do with a bit of a break from all of that activity… thank goodness summer is on the way.

Enjoy your holidays whatever you are doing! See you at the Playbus.