With the advent of summer vacation, most families say goodbye to sleeping and waking up early and turn their lifestyles upside down. Coinciding with the hottest months of the year, summer vacation time in the Kingdom means more hours of sleep, more eating and more going out. Most families get stuck into a sedentary lifestyle and can't get out of it as a large number of them are unable to travel abroad either because they cannot afford it or their breadwinner is unable to get enough time off from work. Thus, faced with limited resources and entertainment options, families are often unable to take full advantage of the summer vacation. Noora is a mother of six and she doesn't know what to do during vacations. Her kids, who have been patiently waiting for the vacation to spend time with their mother, get bored quickly because there are no entertainment places where they can go together with their mother. They get stuck in a rut and end up living a lazy lifestyle. They are caught in a vicious cycle in which they stay up late, sleep all day long and eat fast food. Khalid is a father of an 8-year-old boy. He is very busy at work and does not have time to play. “My son tells me he is bored to death during summer vacation,” said Khalid while adding his son never complained of being bored when he went to school. Umm Faris, a divorcee with 4 children, said she doesn't have enough time or money to take her kids out of the Kingdom for a family vacation. For her kids, the vacation means sleep, sleep and more sleep. Umm Muhammad, on the other hand, believes it is important for parents to enroll their kids in summer clubs or school where they can spend some time playing, learning different arts and crafts and having fun. She also recommends language and computer institutes so kids can spend time learning something beneficial. Nevertheless, she says her sons and daughters still feel bored because for them vacation means going abroad. Umm Muhammad can't afford to pay travel expenses. No matter how hard Salwa tries to break the routine lifestyle associated with summer vacation, she always fails because she can't find social places where she can have fun with her kids. “In the Kingdom, there are only malls and restaurants. In the latter, you sit, eat and talk. Entertainment parks are few and heavily-crowded, besides the weather is too hot to go there. Beach chalets are expensive and it is difficult to get there because I do not have a driver.” __
