ONE week in and already mothers are moaning they can't get through the day without regular refuges in the cupboard under the stairs for a quiet scream.

ONE week in and already mothers are moaning they can't get through the day without regular refuges in the cupboard under the stairs for a quiet scream.

'Wine o'clock always comes forward a couple of hours in the summer holidays,' one mother-of-three confided. 'It's just so stressful.'

Get a grip. Stressful is facing death on the front line, dealing with home repossession or bankruptcy. It's not spending the summer with your children.

Funnily enough, that's meant to be pleasure - not that you'd know it if you watch some mothers out and about with their children.

Parents complain so much about their children. Why do mothers - and sadly it is usually mothers who moan the most - dislike being with their children so much?

Now they are whining that six weeks is too long for a summer holiday. Hello? Summer has always been six weeks. It's not some terrible injustice inflicted specially this year.

But these mothers would be happy to pack the kids back to school because they're getting under their feet. Children can be noisy, demanding, frustrating, objectionable and hard work, but only if they are allowed to.

Women get so little pleasure out of their children they treat them more of a hindrance than a blessing.

But it's their own fault. They've created the demanding nightmares by constant over-indulgence. Do everything for their children and they become incapable of thinking for themselves.

Mothers moan about how they have to keep the children entertained and busy for six weeks and spending a fortune. They don't 'have to.'

Until now, children filled their own summer holidays. They played out, made up games, built dens. Parents wouldn't have dreamed of turning themselves into jazzed-up children's entertainers for the summer. They just did whatever they did for the rest of the year. It's amazing what motivation can come from boredom.

But mothers feel guilty; thinking to allow a child to be bored is tantamount to child abuse. One hour's boredom merits a call to Childline. Bored is good. Bored makes inventive and innovative - or boring; that's up to the child.

We didn't look gormlessly at our mothers every morning asking: 'What are we doing today?' We just went out and did it. We didn't ask for cash handouts. We knew we wouldn't get them. We didn't expect a calendar of fun. Freedom from school was enough.

Today, parents turn into manic super events planners in the summer with grand-scale arrangements making every day being bigger and better so not to disappoint. As if they're scared of their children.

Then they moan they've got nothing done. But the more is done for children, the more they expect and the more disappointed they get and the more frustrated parents get.

Just leave them be, be idle, put your feet up - or get on with what you want or have to do - and let them think for themselves.

Children don't have to be doing something to be happy. They're happy doing nothing. If they're not, they'll find something to do themselves.

Or set them to work. My son has taken over dog duty all summer, feeding and walking the hound to give me a break and earn himself the odd treat.

I've long stopped feeling guilty for leaving my boys to it while I work, clean the fridge or even meet up with friends while the kids moan they are bored.

My hearing gets as selective as theirs when I ask them to do something if they ever complain.

Stop moaning and chill out. They're not young for long - you'll soon be complaining that they never want to be at home and the house is too quiet.