Should I close my Shops for the Summer Holidays?

School holidays started here yesterday and my two little munchkins are very happy to have 6 weeks off:

Yesterday we ran some errands in Gloucester (and had Slush Puppy treats) and went to the local open air swimming pool:

Both of which were fun and lovely, but it did mean that there was very little 'work time'

What I wonder is whether it would be better to close up shop(s) completely over the summer holidays and just concentrate on being a Mummy and enjoy the time off, or whether, like most self employed parents, to struggle through and do as much work as possible in moments, like now, when the little darlings are otherwise occupied (mine usually in front of the telly!)

What do you do?

Last summer, I put all my shops on vacation for a month before doing the Harrogate Home & Gift Fair

So after that had ended, which coincided with the school holidays I felt I needed to re-open my shops and get going with some work. I don't remember struggling too much last summer, which is good. I do remember spending a good portion of the holidays in the swimming pool with my two little fish!!

This year though, we will be going away for 2 weeks over the holidays, so I will have to make a decision.

I hate the idea of all the hard work I do during the rest of the year, building up followings on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Blogger, Google+, etc all dwindling down to nothing if I go on radio silence for 6 weeks and then having to really work hard again in the run up to Christmas, typically my busiest time, to build up interest again.

BUT.... I don't want to end up stressed out completely because the kids want to do stuff and I'm trying to manically keep up with everything. That leads to  A LOT of Mummy Shouting (we've learned the hard way!)

I think for this summer break I'm going to take it as it comes and if I'm struggling too much then put my shops into 'vacation mode' for a couple of weeks.

Maybe I'll just concentrate on getting some more patterns in the shops and then deactivate everything but those (as they don't require any input from me)

Decisions Decisions!

I'll let you know when I decide on anything!!

In the mean time - enjoy the sunshine!