Childless Aspies, do you hate school holidays?

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Joe90
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03 Apr 2016, 8:27 am

Yes I know I was a kid once but I still don't know why that would stop me from disliking children in general.

Does anyone else hate it when the kids are on school breaks (half-terms, Christmas, Easter and especially summer)? I don't do crowds very well, and when the kids are not at school it triples the amount of crowds and traffic everywhere. Plus kids are noisy and unpredictable, and show off or play their parents up when with their siblings/friends. Kids seem to have poor motor skills and they make sudden movements and run right into you.

And there are more chavvy teenagers about (particularly 13-14-year-old girls), shrieking and laughing hysterically at everything.

Anyone else feel anxious being out in public when the kids aren't at school?


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03 Apr 2016, 3:35 pm

You know, the curious thing is that I get this on schooldays instead of during school breaks.
First of all, as I travel to and from work by bicycle, I sometimes get confronted by kids cycling to or from school. They tend to be quite careless, they hog the bicycle lane, and some of them feel the need to shout things at people.
Secondly, if I happen to have a day off but it's still a school day, whenever I go buy my groceries, there are always, ALWAYS kids up and about. This seems to be a relatively new Development; when I was a kid in the 90s, we were in school from 9 o clock until 3 o clock, and we didn't leave the school building except maybe for lunch if we could make it home fast enough. These days, since Holland has been struggling with a teacher deficit, kids get a lot of off-hours or even off-days; the former is more common for secondary school students. So you'll see them walk around town at 9 or 10 o clock because their class doesn't start until 11, etc.

School breaks are a relief for me because I don't have to fight my way through the deluge of kids riding their bicycle. And if I have no work, I typically find myself in places where there are no children, like the library, a museum, or a National park.


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Joe90
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03 Apr 2016, 4:51 pm

Where I come from there are kids literally everywhere, including libraries, museums, small quiet pubs...and that's just the under 5's during term times. When the schoolchildren are off school, it's even worse. You just cannot enjoy a day out anywhere without other people's small children. The problem is these days, is that parents are frowned upon for spanking their kids, and it's only left down to the parents to tell them off. If a child touches something he shouldn't, and staff witness it, they are afraid of telling them off these days, and if the parent doesn't, then the child gets away with it and thinks they can do as they like. When I was a child, I got spanked if I played up in public, and I was made and taught to not run around in shops in case I knock over old people, and even though I had behaviour and attention issues, I was still rather good when out in public. OK I used to act naughty when waiting in waiting-rooms because I hated the wait, but playing with toys or having my mum read a book with me usually kept me quiet. Also lots of attention and communication from my parents amused me too. Also people who weren't my parents yelled at me too if I was doing something I shouldn't, which was a powerful discipline for me because being yelled at by strangers made me anxious then think twice before doing something naughty.

I know what you mean about the rush hours caused by morning and afternoon school runs. I don't miss that during school holidays, and I suppose school holidays don't mean anything if you work Monday to Friday, but it affects you more if you mostly work week-ends and have more time in the week, or if you work evenings, etc. If I had children of my own I don't think other people's kids would bother me so much, as I would be a mum myself so be more tuned into kids.


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Malaise
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09 Apr 2016, 4:47 pm

Not more so than usual, as I tend to avoid stores on places like Saturday afternoons, anyway. I live an apartment so if the kids are off school for awhile they might be noisy in nearby apartments is all.



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13 Apr 2016, 10:54 pm

It does not really bother me that much.

The area where I live is mainly university students rather than families with children. I used to work in an shopping/entertainment/leisure complex but my work did not directly involve the customers so the only difference was how busy the car park and mall was if I was on an evening shift.

In the summer I find tourists more of a problem than kids due to where I live as it makes it hard to walk around where I live.



MamaFrankie5259
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26 May 2016, 5:00 pm

Yes, which is mainly why I don't go out.

For the record, I detest children.


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nick007
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26 May 2016, 8:51 pm

I don't like crowds & never liked kids even when I was a kid. I wouldn't say I hate school holidays thou but I don't love em either; I guess I'm more indifferent.


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Wewnaw
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28 May 2016, 4:04 am

I hate school holidays! I hate kids everywhere, you can't even go to the shop for something without them all running around and being loud. Then there's the talking to you/ smiling at you/ waving whatever. The parents expect you to find this cute or endearing but I tend to ignore them as far as possible and sometimes the parents will then tell me to look at their kid, "He's saying hello to you". I don't care, I'm not besotted with your child! I tend to avoid places where Mum's and their prams congregate during the school hours also, you can't go buy a coffee or out to lunch without skipping around prams and listening to screaming babies. Also, kids off school means that my friends who are parents want to bring their kids with them, which never goes well. Not that I have anything against children, I just find them even harder to talk to and relate to than adults. Nice to let that out!


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28 May 2016, 10:49 am

Yes, I dislike it, and I know people think disliking children makes me horrible.
But it is the entitled nature of it that bothers me. You can't blame children, they don't know any better. But their parents do (or at least should) and yet, they either don't care or choose to do nothing when their child's behaviour is bothering someone else and interfering with another person's comfort in a public space.
Children are just allowed to do whatever they want, whenever they want, to whoever they want, it seems, and if you complain about that you're a monster. Since when has it become acceptable behaviour in a restaurant, for example, for children to run around, scream, play with toys on the floors, throw things, or climb over the furniture other people are sitting on the other side of just trying to have a quiet meal? I have had to leave cafes more than once because someone with a child or several will come in and turn the place into a kindergarten. Move train carriages because the parents sit there in a coma while their children run, scream, run up the stairs, go bother other passengers they don't even know, and in every way dominate every space.
It's the useless parents who need to control them, and teach them respect for other people.


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Joe90
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29 May 2016, 5:39 am

I know small children will be small children but I still find it hard to tolerate them. Yesterday I was going shopping with a friend, and in one of the shops there was 4 brats being really loud and running around, and the parents did nothing. The mother was a chavvy woman on her phone the whole time, and the father just encouraged the kids to behave worse. One of the kids was only about 3 and kept screaming, which was really annoying. Every time his mother went out of sight he screamed, and the dad didn't seem to know how to cope with it. And it was the most deafening scream I ever heard. And the older kids were running around the shop, bumping into people and getting in everyone's way. And the parents did nothing.


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crazybunnylady
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29 May 2016, 6:09 am

When I worked 9-5 I used to like it because you'd be at work anyway and also the traffic was a lot quieter getting to and from work.

When I worked for an autism charity, the school holidays were dreaded. Some activities were cancelled to make space for children's activities instead, other places were crowded with kids. But pretty much everyone wanted to stick to their routine. There would be a lot more incidents during school holidays. People getting overstimulated, trying to push or grab kids, kids being on the swing they normally had a go on etc. Parents thinking their child could do no wrong and it was fine for them to do whatever. Similar mentality to dogwalkers which also often caused a load of issues.

Now I work shifts, I will actively avoid going places where there would be lots of kids. Though I don't go to that many places these days anyway. I usually either start or finish my shifts around the time they are leaving school. I don't want them near me. So in a way the school holidays are better for me.


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luvtaread
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04 Jun 2016, 9:32 am

I love kids, I was a nanny and I adore my niece and nephews. But I HATE school holidays, the kids run amuck, they are loud, rude and it's terrible. I think, especially the shorter breaks or beginning of the summer, kids are super excited to be out of school and free so they are super hyper/annoying and such.