How to: grab some more ‘me’ time

While holidays are relaxing times for most, for solo parents the entire week or fortnight can be more stressful than being at home. Some help is at hand, however…

Find a kid’s club

Kids’ clubs – where you can leave your children and go off and do something by yourself - are the holy grail of family holidays. Not only do they give parents some much-needed ‘me’ time but they also encourage your offspring to meet other children in a creative setting. These aren’t always the easiest things to find, though – particularly in Europe where families tend to spend their entire holiday doing things together (not always practical as a single parent we understand). The majority of hotels offering this nugget of a service also tend to be pretty expensive. If you can find a hotel where you want to go with a kids’ club though, book it and hang the expense if you can – that time out will be just what the doctor ordered.

Use a local babysitter

If you can’t afford a resort with a kids’ club, see if your accommodation at least offers a babysitting service (most do; check the website for details). You can go for dinner in the hotel restaurant or sit and have a drink in the bar safe in the knowledge that your child is being looked after in your room. If the hotel doesn’t provide such a service, they can often facilitate you with the number of somebody local that they recommend, who will come to the hotel to help.

Know their swimming limits

One way of getting some much-needed lounger time is to take your child to a shallow pool that has a lifeguard (or one where they can touch the floor all the way along) and leave them to splash around while you read a book. Some lifeguards will ask your child to demonstrate how well they can swim a width or dive down to collect something to determine if you need to go into the pool with them – if they can manage these things, you are off the hook. Now where did I put that magazine?

Head to the spa

More and more spas are offering treatments for parents and children as a duo. Head to the spa together and, at reception, you will be lead one way for your massage, facial or hot stones; your child the other for their manicure, pedicure or hair-do. If your treatment runs for an hour and theirs 30-minutes, the spa staff will look after your child until your treatment at no extra cost. An hour on a treatment table at the hands of an expert will feel like a gift.