Ten ways children will drive their parents crazy this holiday

The holiday season is here. While teachers are finally exhaling after a demanding school term, parents are doing quite the opposite—gritting their teeth and silently praying for the day schools reopen. For many, the holiday break isn’t a time for relaxation but a chaotic storm, courtesy of their energetic and mischievous children. Here are 10 maddening challenges parents must navigate during the school holidays.

1. Financial toll of daily damages

Prepare your wallet for battle. The holiday break seems to come with an endless list of “accidents”—from a new thermos cracked beyond repair to a mysteriously scratched TV screen, or a missing remote control that seems to have vanished into thin air. Many parents end up sending their little ones to “shags” or daycare centres just to keep the destruction at bay.

2. Waking up at the crack of dawn—still

You’d think school holidays would mean sleeping in. Not so. The children, still wired to their 5 am school wake-up routine, rise early and then proceed to start their day with a row. Whether it’s sibling squabbles or raiding the kitchen for leftovers, the noise will pull you out of bed long before your alarm.

3. Goodbye, TV time

Say goodbye to the news, dramas, and documentaries. The television is now the domain of cartoons, TikTok dance videos, or DJ Afro action flicks—often played at maximum volume. Try asserting control over the remote, and you risk sparking a household rebellion not worth the energy.

4. Extra food budget

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Your kitchen becomes a revolving door. Food disappears faster than you can restock it. That leftover stew you were eyeing for lunch? Gone. The special yoghurt you set aside for the baby? Consumed—and met with blank stares and bold-faced denials. All this while your grocery bill balloons to shocking levels.

5. Impromptu bedroom appearances

Just when you think you’ve earned a moment of peace, in bursts a child (who you thought was playing outside)—into your bedroom or even the bathroom—completely unannounced. You’re caught mid-change, wrapped in a towel, or worse. Privacy becomes a fond memory during this season.

6. The dawn TV ritual

As early as 5 am, the TV is already blaring. Despite your repeated warnings, they still switch it on the moment they wake up. Your pleas go in one ear and out the other—like playing classical music to a goat.

7. Airing dirty linen—literally

One of the greatest holiday horrors? Your curious child rummaging through your handbag or dresser and parading personal items—sanitary towels, or worse, condoms—in front of your chama friends while you’re serving tea. The embarrassment is beyond words.

8. Drama with the neighbours

You’ll have your hands full resolving playground politics. From fights with the neighbour’s children to mysterious scratches on car windscreens, you become an unwilling referee. The compound becomes a battlefield, and your diplomatic skills are tested daily.

9. Noisy children

The house transforms into a live circus. Children from across the street—yours and the neighbour’s—seem to congregate in your living room. No matter how many times you ask them to tone it down, the noise returns like a stubborn echo. If silence is golden, the holidays are copper.

10. Writing and drawing on walls

Prepare for impromptu masterpieces. Your walls become murals, your car a canvas. Whether it’s “WASH ME” scrawled across your car window or portraits drawn on the living room walls in permanent marker, your children’s creativity comes at the cost of your sanity. And that shiny 43-inch television? It may soon wear a crayon moustache.