Back to School? We haven't had our holiday yet!

I had something else in mind to write about today, but on my way home from work yesterday I was shocked to pass the window of Debenhams in the City and see a display advertising "Back to School" discounts.

Hold on a sec!  Back to School?  It's not even mid-July!

We haven't been on holiday yet - in fact the schools haven't even broken up.  What on earth are they thinking?  When I was a kid, it was always a depressing sight to see the Back to School signs go up in the shops in mid- to end-August - you knew it wouldn't be long before the summer holidays were over and you were back at school for the long, long Christmas term.  But crikey, how would I feel if I was at school now and the signs go up before we've even broken up for the summer.

OK, I get that times are hard, econonomically, and that the shops have to try everything they can to persuade us to part with our cash, but come on...

Worse than that though is the feeling I have that it's messing somehow with a "natural" cycle of things.  Holidays are meant to be down-time.  Kids (and adults for that matter) spend so long at school and at work during the year, we all need the holiday time to unwind, to centre ourselves again.  I don't want to feel rushed, feel like I need to get my holiday over and done with so that I can go back to being economically productive again.

So, Debenhams - please do the decent thing and put your "Back to School" signs back into storage until the last week in August at the very least!