When you're a child summer holidays means a long, school-free fun time, but for most parents, they are a great source of stress in what is an already busy life.
Recent research also reveals that a third of mums and dads believe the holidays are too long and over a quarter say they aren’t looking forward to their children being off school at all.
In an effort to lower parental stress over extended periods of time and keep both parents and children happy, a leading child psychologist Laverne Antrobus has developed a mathematical formula that she has called the ‘Fun Quotient’ for a perfect, stress-free summer holiday.
The equation is designed to keep parental stress to an absolute minimum by lowering the stress that children experience by organising activities throughout the six-week holiday.
It basically states that parental stress (Sp) is equal to the sum of the stress level of the children (Sc), on any given day of the holiday, multiplied by the number of children (k) in the household and by the sum of time available (ta) minus the time taken up with organised activity (to), being routine or consistent play activity and meal times etc.
The fundamental part of the equation is time – considering the number of days within the holiday which are planned, perhaps a day trip or visiting a park or attraction, and those which are currently ‘empty’. It also considers the number of kids in the household – which can obviously have an impact on stress levels for parents.
Laverne explains: “Children experience three periods of transition – before, during, and after the school holidays. We all expect children to be able to adapt from the very structured school routine into the more domesticated home environment and back to school again within a relatively short space of time but this in itself can add to a child’s stress as well as a parent’s.
“Add this to the huge pressure parents feel to keep their children ‘amused’ and children’s general high expectations and you have a stressful situation which the majority of parents across the country will be able to relate to."
The formula is meant to be a light-hearted and fun way of looking at a serious issue. Helen Samways, of Bassets Soft and Chewy who came up with the formula, says: “The formula is meant to be a light-hearted and fun way of looking at a serious issue. To help parents easily work out how stressed they are likely to be in the holidays we’ve set up the funquotient website. As well as calculating stress levels it provides lots of ideas for activities that parents can do with their children over the holidays and is a quick and easy way of organising their time.”
Organising your child’s time doesn’t itself have to be stressful and Laverne recommends working to a calendar to reap the most rewards.
Try the following tips to help plan your child’s holiday more effectively:
 1. Create a calendar to represent the school holidays and put in planned events such as birthdays
2. Create some rules that include bedtimes and getting up times in the morning and don't forget that routine is important
3. Encourage everyone to write down activities that include the whole family and put activities on the list that are low cost such as bike riding
4. Make special one-to-one time with each of your children where you can give them your undivided and uninterrupted attention
5. Though it's good to offer a mixture of organised activities, make sure that children do have some of their own free time available for ‘creative’ play. Children need unstructured time to learn to entertain themselves
Summer 09 | 
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