How to survive the London summer holidays with kids (and stay stylish)

If last month’s bank holiday heatwave confirmed anything, it’s that keeping your cool with kids during a London summer isn’t so easy. And schools are shut for six weeks! My local splash pad needs repairs and won’t be open until mid-August, the news of which made me quite literally sweat. However, here are a few ways for parents to stay easy breezy when temperatures are high and tempers are frayed.

Dressing stylishly while keeping cool is a feat at the best of times, let alone when you’re schlepping around with kids. A matching shirt and shorts is quick to chuck on yet looks like you’ve made an effort. I’ll be spending all summer in With Nothing Underneath’s lightweight co-ords in cotton and linen (from £65, withnothingunderneath.com). My husband relies on Uniqlo’s cotton/linen mix shirt and pull-on shorts (£29.90 & £19.90, uniqlo.com).

Forget chicken nuggets in the noisy backroom of a pub, my top tip you’ll enjoy as much as the kids is hot dogs and banana splits at The Delaunay. The staff are delightful and the kitchen will adapt dishes, such as putting sauces on the side and serving smaller portions. Din Tai Fung in Covent Garden is always a hit thanks to the glass-fronted kitchen where you can watch dumplings being made.

On discovering our paddling pool had been nibbled by foxes, I bought a big bendy bucket (£18.99, amazon.co.uk) to dunk the kids — and my feet — in. It will fit in even the most compact of outside spaces. If you’re heading for a day at the beach or on a staycation, load it up with shoes/toys/towels and stick it in the boot of your hire car.

A burnt nose is a sure-fire way to kill your chill, but it’s easy to forget to put suncream on yourself. I keep La Roche-Posay’s SPF50 mist (£19, lookfantastic.com) in the hood of the buggy, which can be spritzed on the go, even over make-up. Solar Buddies applicator (£7.98, boots.com) is the most drama-free way of suncreaming kids.

Entertaining kids in the city can get expensive (The Paddington Bear Experience… how much?!). However, there are day trips that won’t cost a stitch. On my hit-list is a movie afternoon at Everyman on the Canal and the just-opened Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration. If the sun’s out, I’m off to the new Dinosaur Playground in Crystal Palace. On rainy days Uniqlo Tate Play at Tate Modern is a godsend.

If you’re going to spend the summer carrying around kid-related paraphernalia, you might as well have something chic to put it in. I’ve swapped my tired tote for Balzac’s leather-trimmed basket (£340, balzac-paris.com) which is big enough for water, wipes, snacks, etc, and looks great at the pub on child-free nights. Keep everything organised with Antler’s ripstop pouches (£30 for three, antler.co.uk). Use one for your things, one for the kids’ and one for anything that gets wet or dirty.

Swap the scent of chlorine in the sports centre pool for Coram’s Fields open-air water feature. Or try the free lido at Royal Victoria Dock Summer Splash which runs July 24 to August 16. Ruskin Park in Denmark Hill is incredibly beautiful and has a large paddling pool. Grab a cold drink and fried pizza dough bites at The Kerfield Arms afterwards.

I can’t think of anything less appealing than cooking after a hot day of parenting. Raid the cupboards for Perelló olives and Babybel and head to the nearest patch of grass instead. The best picnic blanket is from TBCo (£95, tbco.com) as it has a built-in ground sheet to stop your bum getting damp. Black+Blum’s sleek insulated tote (£44.95, black-blum.com) keeps juice boxes — and gins-in-tins — perfectly cold. Cheers.