Summer is here and the living is easy. Well, it is if you have a month in the Bahamas booked and Maria von Trapp on the payroll. As the kids hang up their Aertex shirts in preparation for six whole weeks of freedom, most parents are beginning to wonder how to fill the time.

For many of us, it feels like freedom, too; a welcome break from the weekly grind. It's a chance to take off into the countryside or hit the beach, bend the rules on bedtime and enjoy quality time. Six weeks of it...

Gone are the days when we could boot our children out the door after breakfast with only a jam sandwich and a reminder to be back by teatime. Nowadays, summers are all about entertainment. So while you might be able to portion off around a third of the holidays on wallet-friendly options such as going to the park, you'll probably have to find something more constructive to fill the remaining two-thirds.

No problem! There are lots of great ways to spend time with the kids these days. When we were young, Swingball in the garden or going down the rec was all that was on offer. We were forced to be resourceful or bored. (Usually bored.) Today, though, there are mini zoos and marmoset worlds and play parks and farm parks and farm park play parks. It's a veritable smorgasbord of entertainment options.

But if your children are anything like ours, once you've handed over a hefty entry fee, they'll race past the genuinely interesting exhibits - an impressive display of 19th-century seed drills, say - in their eagerness to reach the play area. So here you are, to all intents and purposes, back at the park again. Only there are a couple of goats in your peripheral vision and you're £16.50 poorer.

The fact is, no amount of organisation or money can guarantee a smooth holiday ride. Just by being small, or clumsy, or not quite able to master their emotions, children can turn even the simplest of outings into a challenge involving raised voices, soiled undergarments and mild peril. The trick is to expect that. So you may get the campfire singalong you were dreaming about, but only after your eldest child has tripped over the tent ropes for the sixth time and your youngest has burst the inflatable mattress by jumping on it in his football boots.

It's worth remembering, though, that for all the curve balls your children may lob at your finely honed plans, they can also transform an otherwise mundane event into one of pure joy. Children find entertainment value in things we have long since fogotten to enjoy. Like going to the launderette: with children a fun interlude marvelling at someone else's pants looping by in the dryer and playing guess the spin cycle light to come on next.

Being open to fun is key. Which inevitably involves the P word: play. There, I've said it. Essential, and yet so very hard. Early-years experts say that half an hour immersing yourself in your child's activity is infinitely more beneficial than a day spent saying 'that's nice dear' over your shoulder while emptying the dishwasher. So try re-engaging with the simple joy of hide and seek. It's time to pull off your shoes and get on that trampoline, scale the giddy heights of that adventure playground wobbly bridge thing and shovel sand until you've recreated Carcassone on the shores of the Channel. Enjoy the rollercoaster of life with children. And when the highs, lows, screaming and vomiting start to get to you, just remember - it will all be over by September.