Surviving the summer holidays

The ice cream van pulled up while Sid and I were walking home from the water fountains, soaking wet and painfully hungry (his words). I let him have one, with a flake. This counts as dinner, right? It was our first proper six-week holiday marathon, and it turns out I'm not the only one making it up as I go. For OcadoLife I wrote about how we spend the summer – the £500 most parents drop over six weeks, the strawberries eaten at a financially unsustainable rate, the meals I make from cupboard staples while Sid's two dads miss the five o'clock deadline – then asked three parents who know how they do it. Stu Oakley, co-author of The Queer Parent. Louise Boyce, aka @mamastillgotit. Pamela Aculey, who takes the same photo outside the same yellow beach hut in Scarborough every year. Embrace the noise. Lock the snack cupboard. Pass the rosé.

Ellie Fazan wrote and conducted the interviews for OcadoLife’s summer holidays feature, published summer 2026, speaking to parents including Louise Boyce and Stu Oakley about navigating the school holidays.