I agree with the OP – midwinter vacations are ridiculous. Sorry, but you are dreaming if you think they bring bonding and family time – they bring boredom, and the resulting poor choices….the mall, the hang out…laziness… scrambling to find good choices for the inevitable — what are we going to do today? — And while nobody is forced to keep up with the Cohns, it is an added pressure to have to respond to the – why can’t we…and it is very challenging to make childcare arrangements for working parents. I think most people agree that kids do much better with a structured day and environment. I don’t think it’s a matter of what teachers deserve – our teachers are wonderful and they work with so much mesiras nefesh – but who says they are going to get to sleep late – they have their own vacationing kids to deal with…anyway my vote is NO MIDWINTER VACATIONS.
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it doesnt need ot be a last minute rush- spend a little time every day making plans. youve known since the day your kids were born that they are going to have winter vacation at some point. youve also known since the begining of the year, and since the yom tovim and since chanuka (all the big things which may have come in the way of planning). now that its all over and you still have a few weeks left, ask your kids for ideas. obviously you dont have to do each one, but you can get a feel NOW for what your kids want to do, and you can also find fun and interesting things to do online, which obviously isnt a problem for you since you are posting here 🙂
it will only result in bad choices and laziness and everything else you said if the responsible adult allows that to happen. even if you dont do anything as a family, your kids all have friends, so let them get together every day at someone elses house. (i think someone mentioned that already)
by the way, the answer to why cant we is “thats not what we decided to do right now” or maybe “because when we talked about what everyone wants to do that never came up” or maybe “that is not in our budget right now” being honest is not a problem.
one last thing. yes, many kids do much better in a structured environment, but everyone needs a break.