A week without the children isn’t the holiday we expected

The kids were hoping for Center Parcs this half-term.

Yes, it’s over-priced; and yes, last time we went, I had a near-death experience with an overweight stranger halfway down the Tropical Cyclone. But for a safe and easy British holiday, with every middle-class reassurance you could hope for, it’s a winner.

This year, however, it was not to be. Our instinctively cautious approach to parenting – and to public health crises – was never easily going to square with a week in a holiday village. And for all the vaccine success, I felt sure it was only a matter of time before Center Parcs Woburn joined Brazil on the government’s Covid red list. And don’t get me started on the prospect of a Center Parcs Elveden Forest variant.