Getting Away From It All

Summer outings, car packed with sandwiches and bottles of squash. A week of glorious family time, when the pressures of home melt away in what you always remember as glorious endless sunshine. Memories of times like these with families, however simple, are remembered as treasured moments all of our lives.  More importantly they’ve helped shape our family life and strengthened our family relationships.

Every year Mothers’ Union helps many families who otherwise wouldn’t be able to have a holiday, to Get away from it all through the provision of days out or holiday weeks away.

For parents and children a holiday like this can make all the difference. Belinda and her nine-year-old daughter, Charlotte’s world changed forever when Belinda’s husband died unexpectedly in October 2009. A member of Belinda’s church asked her if she would like to go on a holiday to the Isle of Wight organised by Mothers’ Union in Hampshire. They were part of a group of other families and a team of Mothers’ Union volunteers who all stayed together in a fantastic venue, close to the sea.

Mothers’ Union volunteers offer children’s activities, ensuring the parents get a break, or an opportunity to meet up with other parents in informal sessions where they can share experiences and chat through their personal stories. “This holiday has been healing for both of us,” Belinda explained.  “Since her dad died Charlotte has, understandably, clung very closely to me, but the atmosphere here is so friendly and supportive that she’s been happy to take part in the organised children’s activities whilst I relax.”

Every morning Belinda went along to informal but confidential chat sessions with other adult holidaymakers and Mothers' Union volunteers that she found enormously helpful.  Close friendships quickly formed and Belinda remarked with a smile “It’ll be tissue city for all of us as we say goodbye, and already some of us are exchanging emails so we can keep in touch.”

Holidays are offered to families who are experiencing some kind of distressing situation, and for the vast majority of those who go on the holiday, it can be their very first holiday – ever.  Some may need time away from the day-to-day stresses of everyday life in order to spend some special time together as a family, to recover and gain the strength to go on.  Other families may be coming to terms with a recent bereavement, or children may be coming to terms with the impact that their parents’ recent divorce has had on them.  Some might be escaping from domestic violence and just need some time to recover and begin planning for the future in a safe place.  

A grandmother on holiday with the three grandchildren she cares for shared how, for her, the best thing about the holiday they had was seeing her grandchildren happy.  She explains that the holiday enables her grandchildren to meet other children their own age who may also have been though tough family times.  As they play and make friends, this “makes them feel normal” instead of often feeling different from other children they meet at school, who haven’t experienced such difficulties.

None of these holidays would take place without the amazing dedication of a whole army of Mothers’ Union members around the UK & Ireland, who coordinate the organisation of AFIA in their diocese. On average, around 2,800 people a year have a holiday organised by Mothers’ Union, which would include around 1,500 children.

Anyone who is interested in applying for a Mothers’ Union Away From It All Holiday is put in touch with the Mothers’ Union coordinator in their area.  If Mothers’ Union are able to help, the family would then be asked to complete an application form, and to suggest someone who knows them in a professional capacity (for example, their family doctor, a social worker, a member or sometimes a member of the clergy), who can support their application.  Mothers’ Union can sometimes help with part or most of the cost of the holiday, depending on the personal circumstances of the family.

For further information email outreach@themothersunion.org