As the summer holidays draw near us parents have run out of ideas | Blaise Tapp

Most mums and dads take a deep breath before embarking on six weeks, if they are lucky, of keeping their little darlings entertained by something other than Mr Tumble and Super Mario.

This year, the challenge is made all the greater by the fact that the novelty of spending more time with the family has well and truly worn off.

Covid-19’s long toxic reach has well and truly rendered the longest of all holidays to being just another month and a half of getting through the weirdest of all years.

In our house, there isn’t the usual excitement, coupled with persistent chimes of ‘how many more days left until we break up dad?’.

That is even though both my kids have been back in school since May.

They just aren’t bothered, which is largely because they have genuinely enjoyed being back with most of their pals.

For the huge numbers of kids who haven’t stepped foot in a classroom or sat through double maths since March, the impending summer break is more than a little ‘meh’.

But, spare a thought for the parents, especially those who have really given the homeschooling lark a genuine go, because they are the people who are really on their knees.

I know a few such well-meaning people.

They are the ones who, back in the third week of March, were fired up with genuine enthusiasm for the task that lay ahead.

But now they have that haunted look that Bill Murray had about halfway through Groundhog Day when he really couldn’t see the point of continuing.

They have nothing left to give and if these little-celebrated heroes of 2020 have run out of bright and interesting ideas, then what chance do the rest of us have?

Sourdough, homemade afternoon tea and posters for the bay window have all been done to death, as have Netflix and the entire back catalogue of Sky Movies.

Parents are venturing into arguably one of the most stressful periods on the calendar with very little left to offer.

However, there are bound to be the odd one or two who enjoy putting the rest of us to shame by building a replica of the Magic Kingdom out of cornflakes boxes or put on their very own production of Phantom of the Opera in the living room throughout August.

For the rest of us, we can’t even encourage our young to do what we did during the 1980s – roam the streets, make dens out of fly tipped office furniture and generally cause mischief.

The idea of fresh air and adventure isn’t really an option for most kids, as the climate of fear and caution still touches the sensible majority.

I cannot even fall back on my go-to holiday treat because a trip to McDonalds these days is as exciting as a visit to the local multi-storey car park.

Although cinemas are opening back up soon, I think I would be out the door the minute I heard the first cough, whether it was popcorn induced or not.

Swimming pools might be an option, after all not much survives chlorine.

We are quite happy to splash about in other people’s water the rest of the time, but I am yet to discover how this will work.

Going swimming with two kids is stressful enough.

Imagine having to get them showered both before and after the visit while reminding them that overtaking is banned and there can be definitely no reenactments of Jaws right now.

There is no doubt that these are all first world problems and, in all probability, the moments of boredom and the odd long day will be largely overshadowed by laughter and six weeks more family time.

The new school term really can’t come soon enough.