Just getting to places can be too expensive

They say they simply do not have the money to give their children trips or other activities.

One mother said she invented things her son could say when he went back to school and had to write about "what I did in the summer holidays".

Barnardo's report gives a new meaning to "dream holiday" - for many, having any holiday is just "a distant dream".

The problem is made worse for those in isolated areas because of transport shortcomings and cost.

'Distress'

Its study focuses on communities in South-West England and arose from discussions last year with parents about the pressures they were likely to face during the summer holidays.

My boy said 'we won't ask you if we can go Mum because it's too expensive' Lone parent

"One of the key messages of these discussions was the distress that the parents experienced when they talked about not being able to provide good experiences for their children," Barnardo's said.

One single mother knew that in the first days of the new term in September the children would be asked to write about 'what I did in the summer holidays'.

"She also knew that compared with many of the other children her son had done very little in the holidays - there was simply not enough money.

"So that her son would have something to talk about, she said that before the beginning of term she sat with her son and helped him make up things that he could say."

Cinema trips

Barnardo's interviewed 43 parents with children aged five to 13 about their experiences.

One lone parent, Christine, said she had never had a holiday with her seven-year-old son.

"I've been camping down the river and that's as near as we came to a holiday," she told the researchers.

"It's a shame when all his friends have been away and he goes back (to school) and says 'I haven't done much'. "

Another lone parent, Julia - with three children aged 12, 10 and seven - said going to the cinema would be "a luxury".

"We would have to cut back in the week to afford it."

Sport offer

Barnardo's said that in the school holidays - particularly the long summer break - the "complex webs of involvement and support" provided by schools and other agencies, including free school meals, "falls away from children's lives".

Media images reinforce a sense of being "different"

Hilary, a lone parent who lives on income support, said there was a summer play scheme at her local school but it cost �10 a week per child.

"My boy said 'we won't ask you if we can go Mum because it's too expensive'."

John, another lone parent, was asked whether his six-year-old boy had been involved in any sports activities.

He said: "He was chosen to do some tennis thing with the school but I never had the transport to do it."

'Resilience'

Barnardo's said most children in the UK had holidays away from home - often abroad - and exciting activities and trips, reflected in media coverage which all children saw.

"For children in poverty these activities are simply outside the resources of their families and the summer holidays become a time of 'survival'.

"In spite of resilience on the part of communities, wider families and individuals, one of the key themes from the survey was that the parents felt that their children were being excluded and made to feel different."

It argues that this contravenes part of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, about participating fully in cultural, artistic, recreational and leisure activities.

The report calls for a minimum income, entitlement to food benefits during the summer holidays for families on income support, and a duty on education authorities to ensure families get school uniform grants.

It also calls for more concerted action at a local level so poor families can take part in school holiday activities.

One of the report's authors, Dr Owen Gill, said: "The pressures facing low income families in the summer holidays illustrates the way in which the benefit system combines with lack of local provision to make children in these families particularly excluded and vulnerable at this time of year."