SO, are you going to spend over £1,000 entertaining your children this summer? No, funnily enough, neither am I. But a lot of people are. According to figures from Abbey National, the average cost of the school holidays - not counting the family holiday - is £420 per child. But 20 per cent of families spend more than a £1,000 on each child over the six weeks. Gulp. If you have two children, that's nearly the national average wage, just to keep the kids content.

It all apparently goes on food and drink, trips to theme parks, swimming pools and videos. But it's still an awful lot of burgers and roller coasters.

And sorry, but most of that is probably a waste of money.

Oh yes. It's great to have a few outings. Good, too, to give them a week or two learning to swim or sail or brush up their football or tennis skills.

But £1,000?

Just think back to your childhood and what was the best bit of the summer holidays. It might have been the trip to a theme park or seaside with your mum and dad. The chances are, though, it was probably the time you spent mucking about with your friends, with no deeds to do, no promises to keep, just a whole summer stretching out in front of you, when you made your own amusement and were left to your own devices - as long as you were home in time for tea.

It wasn't necessarily an idyllic Enid Blyton-type childhood. Maybe you just spent hours playing snakes and ladders or collecting bus tickets. It didn't matter. You were exploring the world and life with your friends, not being supervised, yet again, by adults.

Children don't have to be organised, treated and time-tabled over the summer holidays. They need, sometimes, to be bored. How else are they going to learn to entertain themselves? They need, too, the company of other children with as little adult interference as possible, to make their own plans, and carry them out, whether they're limited to the back garden or have the run of the town or countryside.

In trying to be nice to children, we are in fact being cruel. Constantly providing them with trips and treats, we're depriving them of the chance to think for themselves.

Our parents' generation had very little spent on them but they had freedom to grow up in peace.

Spending a thousand pounds on a child this summer might sound wonderful - but freedom is a far greater gift.

What's more, it's a lot cheaper.

THE Government's latest wizard wheeze (and why does the combination of "Government" and "initiative" always makes one's heart sink?) is to make children volunteer for good works in the community. Yet another thing for long-suffering teachers to organise.

Many schools already encourage their children in a huge range of voluntary work. However, in this new scheme, children are apparently going to have precious little choice over whether they do or don't take part - which means they're not volunteers at all, but conscripts.

So instead of flannelling talk of volunteers, why can't the Government be honest and call it a new version of National Service?

SKINNY can be ugly, no doubt about that, but I'm afraid feminists who try to tell us that big is beautiful have been proved horribly wrong. Just look at Sophie Dahl. Sure, when she was big she was attractive. But now she is slim she is stunning. A classic case of less is more.

SO the marriage of Princess Anne and Commodore Tim Laurence is said to be foundering. This is sad for them and their families.

However, knowing Princess Anne's robust approach to life, I think it's safe to say that we'll be spared the wide-eyed, soulful Panorama interview on the subject. Nice to know that some people still think private lives should stay that way.

MOST Italians think romance in the workplace improves efficiency and makes people work harder, says a new survey.

Let's hope English managers agree. In which case, I look forward to the perks of the job including health scheme, pension, company car - and toy boy.

WE'VE long got used to people eating burgers or chips or pizzas in the street.

And now even quite sensible-looking people wander along clutching giant cups of exotic cofee.

But in Middlesbrough on Friday I saw the best yet - a girl with a Marks & Spencer salad bowl in one hand and a fork in the other, eating her lunch as she pushed her way through the crowds.

Suddenly, tables and chairs seem so hopelessly old-fashioned.

WOMEN managers are too nice to get to the top of their professions, the Congress of Psychology heard this week.

Sadly, it's probably true. To be really successful, even the nicest person has to have a nasty, ruthless streak and not care about the people involved. That's why, usually, men are so much better at it.

Published: 04/07/2001