Looking forward to half term? It’ll cost you

Parents will fork out over £200 on keeping their kids amused in next week’s half term holidays.

And new research claims dads are more generous, or less organised, than their other halves when it comes to outings and entertainment.

Men spend around £255 on their children over the course of a week off school on trips, travel and treats. But mums only spend £205.

The research was carried out for the SpeedMachine festival taking place this weekend at Silverstone race track and letting in under-16s for free. The number crunchers claimed that men spend more because they are less organised and end up paying for last minute trips whereas mums plan ahead and bag bargains. While there doesn’t seem to be hard evidence for this it would fit with what we know about women doing the majority of childcare. If men spent more time with their families, starting with more paternity leave and shared parental leave, they would gain more practice and perhaps get better at laying on inexpensive entertainment out of term time.

Generous

A third of parents said they were concerned their kids would spend too much time in front of a screen in the holidays while a quarter said they would pay to take the kids on trips just to get them out of the house.

Parents in East Anglia were most generous with 75% anticipating spending up to £200 per child on half term outings. In Wales 5% of parents said they’d be spending nothing on the kids next week.

A trip to the cinema was the most popular outing with more than half of parents planning to take their kids to the flicks. A third planned to get away on holiday with all the expense that entails. One in five had an educational trip to a tourist attraction organised.

The weather forecast is a mixed picture for next week’s holidays in England and Wales so parents could see the cost rise higher if they are forced into visiting paid attractions by poor conditions.

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