Summer Holidays Can Be Heaven or...

13 Days and Counting  It has only been thirteen days since my children were officially released on holiday from school for the summer. That is nine days that they would ordinarily be in school, shepherded around by teachers from one activity to another for six hours. That means 29 more days in which my husband and I will be organizer and entertainment director until the new school year starts. ("It's your turn." "No, it's not." "Yes, it is. I told you I had this morning set aside to do [work, laundry, grocery shopping, phone calls, write an article, see SoAndSo..."]) 

 

Holiday?  I wonder who decided that the break should be called a holiday, or as the Americans call it; “vacation.” My guess is that the guilty party was the devil himself, keenly aware of the irony in those labels, and smirking at the way we adults try to squeeze some relaxation from it.  My parents would point out that, instead of the measly six weeks that my children get for the summer, my brothers and I had a 10-week break from school in the United States and we all survived. “Yes,” I would reply, “We went by bus to day camp every day frorm the age of three, and when we got older you sent us all to summer sleep-away camp for eight weeks. You did have a vacation: it was time to be a couple again, without us.” Oh, that's what is missing...having time to talk and not refer to each other as Mom and Dad for the kids' sake. What a concept. Uh, oh, better rein in the sarcasm. It's turning from a whimsical conversation to actual frustration.

Like it or Loathe It  What am I getting at? Well, in all honesty, it’s only mild and temporary insanity.  I have been getting up at 7:30 or 8:00 a.m. instead of the usual 7:00. That’s good. No alarm clock, yeah! We do have some play dates organized, but meanwhile I am getting little done.  It seems that every time I head to the loo, my rolling office chair is filled with a little person wanting to spin around, look at You Tube or Google Images or make computer paintings.  My athletic and artistic nine year old daughter complained of boredom the first week, drew some beautiful pictures and read a whole chapter book, while draped across her bed.  Thankfully, we found a day camp program for her last week, because frankly, I was running out of suggestions and getting tired of The Look; you know, the one that says I am a failure as a mother.  You would think I kept her caged.

 

CircusGirlBigDreams The photo of Circus Girl up high on the mast of the pirate ship is from our trip to the Princess Diana Playground in Kensington Gardens; one of our day trips. The child has just gotten her own room and a first-class treehouse built with love and amazing resourcefulness. (I sourced the wood, picket fencing, newel posts and doors from local residents' project left-overs over the course of a year, either out of skips or advertised on [email protected] .)  She is my fearless one; the next step will be installing a climbing wall, trapeze & zip wire NOT. They don't know how good they have got it and their memory is very short. Woe is the child who says to me "You never...."

AlienHunterSquareEyes My son, the feisty, independent five year old, aka Alien Hunter, has incredible focus and is happy to sit on the floor for hours and draw, do puzzles or read his books, as long as the TV is on. He can be lured away from the alien, animal, history and crafts shows to make models of aliens and animals with Fimo; expensive, coloured modelling clay that you bake in the oven until hard. (Have you ever heard of a sabre-toothed squirrel? Maybe it’s a Pokemon character.) 

 

Controlling the Chaos  Anyway, I am aiming for a ratio of one hour of arts & crafts, watching clouds drift and reading together, with full attention from Mummy or Daddy, to one hour of CBBC or a DVD a day.  So far, it’s been a guide, but his side is winning.  Oh, the fact that his sister wasn’t here last week to boss him around or to be on the receiving end of his mischief, had a peaceful effect on the house. Unfortunately, Camp Guy didn't get his act together early enough to fill places for this week, so camp lasted 5 days. What a wasted opportunity.  Is there a God?  Thank goodness for our large offering of public parks in our area of North London/SouthHerts. We have been heading to Cassiobury Park in Watford quite often for the new playground, the canal with it's locks and barge boats, huge paddling pool and acres of grass, not to mention the ChaCha Cafe; a favourite of mine.

What Rules?  The kids seem to have gotten the idea that, in the summer holiday all term-time rules are replaced with "Hey, it's party time!"  They sneak down at 6:30 a.m. to watch TV, drink chocolate milk for breakfast, want to go somewhere fun every day and stay up at least one, if not two or three, hours later than usual. Every night that Circus Performer sleeps over at a friend's, Alien Hunter decides that he, his father and I should have "Movie Night." That consists of watching a DVD of his choice, with all the snacks otherwise disallowed after 7 p.m.: potato crisps (Salt & Vinegar, please), chocolate covered raisins, cubes of cheddar cheese, hummous and something to dip in it. Oh, Mummy, can you dip some strawberries in chocolate too?  Pleeeeassse, it's just for movie night!  So far, we have watched Evan Almighty, Bushwacked and Harry Potter. Not so bad, unless we were really looking forward to a quiet night with three episodes of CSI.

 

Cut Me Some Slack  So, now you might understand why:

• I frequently forget what day of the week it is,
• have narrowly missed 3 appointments recently,
• am not bothering with makeup unless I know I will see people,
• am perfumed with the scent of peanut butter & jam sandwiches, and
• am wearing my Crocs nearly all the time (yes, I know they are ugly. I don't care. I love them)

It's easier to lead a barefoot, spontaneous life during these six weeks. It doesn't matter if he wears his pyjama top with his jeans and she dresses as if it is 90 degrees out - it's not. Actually, I could get to like a less structured life.  I feel a lottery win is in order, to support us in the style to which we would like to get accustomed.

Comments

[Billy]

From when to when is your (well the kids..) summer holiday (and why is it nine days that they would ordinarily be in school)?

Anyway tagged you :-).