What can we do now, Mum?

(From Irish Independent)

Summer holidays are here from this week and parents are panicking at the idea of having to amuse their little darlings for weeks on end. CATHERINE MURPHY reports on a newbook called Dublin for Kids and the author picks her top ten

This week all over Dublin children are looking at their parents, saying things like "What can I do, there'snothing to do." Yes, folks, the schools holidays are here and parents are panicking at the prospect of keeping the little darlings amused for the weeks that stretch ahead.

Of course you can let them watch Sky all day and turn their brains into mush. But for anyresponsible parent that can't be an option. And anyway there's a limit to how much of thathistrionic WWF shouting you can listen to in the background.

So inevitably, the kids will look for you to provide them with things to do. And todays' generation of four to eleven year olds are extremely demanding.

No one can pinpoint the exact moment when children took over the world. But they did.You realise it when your eight-year-old says the only thing he'll eat off the menu is the prawns and your ten-year-old daughter casts a cold eye over your outfit and instructs you to change because you areseriously embarrasing her.

At no point is this little tyranny more obvious than in the long summer months, when previously uniformed, active children turn into bored, whining delinquents demanding to be taken to the skate park or the latest hip hop dance class. And that's just the boys; the girls will undoubtedly be screaming at you to take them to Samba soccer or the local GAAclub.