“So, where are you going this summer?”
Presumably they don’t mean to shame you – they’re just not thinking. Other parents see it as small-talk, inconsequential chit chat to pass the time, rather than a question capable of inducing a full-blown existential crisis.
The presumption is that, of course, you’re going somewhere. You must be. A UK destination just about counts, as long as it’s somewhere impressive sounding and in luxurious accommodation, but is still very much a consolation prize to the expected ideal: a “proper” holiday abroad. So that when my kid goes back to school in September, and has to either talk or write about what he did over the six week break, he will have a similar story to that of all his friends. Despite the inconvenient fact that for many of us, money has never been tighter, the massive pressure to take our offspring away over the summer holidays remains unchanged.
YouGov announced in January that the cost of living came first in a poll of top issues facing the country, picked by 54 per cent of Britons. In April, 79 per cent of adults in Great Britain reported an increase in their cost of living compared with the previous month, due to food and fuel prices, among others. However, most of my son’s social circle are somehow just going away this summer, they got the hell out of Dodge for half-term too. In other words, I already feel on the back foot, like I’m letting him down. As though he is missing out, being shortchanged. The truth is that all logic and statistics and sensible, rational thought aside, I worry I’m a bad mum if I don’t – can’t – take my son abroad this year.
