Blog

<p>After 6 weeks of school holidays and the first week back at school here in NSW has just flown by. </p>I can remember when school finished up for 2011 and thinking “these are going to be long holidays”. Six weeks is a huge amount of time for a family of five to be living in each others’ pockets – this was not going to be pretty, or so I thought.

The lead up to Christmas seemed to take forever, with multitudes of functions to attend. All of a sudden Christmas was over and New Years was just around the corner as was a long drive to visit family for a week and a half. By this stage, we were all in ‘whatever’ mode. Lazy mornings, late breakfast and late showers, all leading into later dinners and bedtime routines – the bliss of no schedules! Yes, there was many a sibling rivalry amongst it all, household chores to squeeze in around the kiddies and a few Mummy meltdowns as the brain started to frazzle from very little ‘me’ time but all in all, not having to rush around was heaven.

Before I knew it, the end of January was nearing; school shoes to be fitted for and purchased, school supplies and uniforms to be organised – how did the end of January sneak up like that?! Then it dawned that these kiddies needed to get back into the routine of getting up earlier and going to be earlier to be ready and not overtired. These habits were hard to break and we had many debates: “why do I have to go to bed earlier – it’s still light and school hasn’t gone back yet?” Hmmmm.... these kiddies of mine are growing up and becoming oh so more aware – bugger!

Then the bickering and whinging began – okay, so we had made it 5 weeks – that ‘me’ time when they all went back to school was looking more and more inviting and by the weekend before school returned, I was absolutely craving time out and super keen for them all to head off to school.

So now we have come to the end of week one and boy oh boy did that week fly! The beginning of the week started with all the kiddies settling in quickly with their new teachers and classes and super happy. Then the notes started coming home – class requirements, sports permission, swimming carnivals – oh no, I need to get organised again!!! Not to mention afternoon activities resuming. So it is get up early to get eldest of to school on the bus, get other two organised and off to school (having completed morning jobs they need to do), get my work and appointments done, washing and ironing, prepare meals, groceries, fit in some ‘me’ time, pick up youngest two kiddies from school and have afternoon tea and any homework before picking up eldest off the bus at 4.30pm then washing school containers, cook dinner, after school activities, prepare lunches for next day, clean up kitchen, ensure kiddies do their night time jobs and then fall into the lounge in a heap! I am sure that many of you can relate to this scenario oh so well – some of you will have even more scheduled tasks in there or varied ones but the life of a parent when the kiddies are back at school is pretty much the same – crazy one day and a little insane the next!

I enjoy being able to do all the required tasks in peace (or with some music nice and loud and by peace I mean no kiddies and their endless requests) and my days seems to be far more productive, but I miss the slow paced mornings with a more carefree attitude with no nagging from me about remembering glasses, drinks and so on. There are not as many games being played with the children as there is just no time left in the day, yet I now have more time to do what I want to do. Such a huge contrast but I guess that is why we have 4 terms with the school holidays spread out over the year, helping to maintain the balance – it must have been designed by a parent with the sole purpose of keeping parents sane! So ask yourself the same question: back to school – to like or dislike, that is the question.

Happy Weekend
Melanie xx