Kids returning to school is great. It gets them out of the house and back into routine. There are friends to see, interesting things to learn and lots to do! However, term time is intense. 10 weeks of school commitments and the pressure points of time management and social interactions can leave you aching for a holiday. Here’s 3 things that I hate about the return to school.
- Frenetic mornings and time pressure: If your kids are anything like my kids, getting out of bed and making sure they’re organised to be ready for school on time is a daily head ache. I hate having to drag sleepy children out of bed. When sleep is valuable, (especially for those who struggle with it) being gently shaken awake and told you have to be at school in 40 minutes is horrid. Younger children tend to wake early without much help, however I think the primary years are the most intense. Given their age, you as the responsible adult need to be hands on in getting them out the door. If you’ve got kids who take forever to get dressed or cry about going to school, it’s stressful. But for a mother of teens…yikes! While I implement, “Don’t do for your children what they can do for themselves” it’s pretty hairy watching them sail close to the wind each day. When they roll out of bed with 15 minutes till leaving, only to growl at you, throw together lunch, and eat breakfast running to school, it’s pretty crazy. Afterwards you feel a bit dizzy from observing the whirlwind that just exited your front door. Even Saturdays can be madness; if you have early morning sport to attend!
- The emotional demand of a kid who hates school: Some kids love school. They have great friends and a great teacher, so the social aspect of school makes it a place they want to be. Others love the stimulation of learning, or have particular subjects that make certain days awesome; it’s easy to get out of bed when you know you’re doing your favourite subject. (Sport seems to be popular with my kids.) However, if you struggle with friendships or are bullied; if you don’t connect with your teacher or perceive they don’t connect with you; or just hate most subjects and feel like you’re not much good at most things, then school is hard work. For a parent of a child who hates school, it is draining. The daily battle of getting them to go to school, the emotional weight of knowing that they’re struggling, and the repetitive coaching and counselling to help them through each day, can be incredibly difficult. No parent wants to see their child unhappy, or be in an environment that causes them stress. As a parent with a child who struggles with school, year in year out, the term time emotional burden can be a hard one to bear.
- Juggling of schedules, homework and extra-curricular activities: The moment school resumes, so does the paperwork, timetabling and taxi driving. The more kids you have at school; the more things you’ve got to be across and supervise. The sum total of assignments, reading diaries, teacher interviews, sports days and assemblies is enough to drive you mad. On top of this is the steady stream of notes to be signed and money to be paid for school excursions and the like. Like those clever clowns who manage to keep multiple plates spinning in the air at one time, is a parent with kids at school. The trick is to keep the plates up and spinning for the entirety of the act; the moment one begins to wobble or fall is the moment you lose control. Term time can be exhausting, and frankly holidays are a welcome relief from the school circus.
Resilient Parenting 
Jo, you’re a great writer! I saw a funny back to school facebook pic last week of a mum in a pool in an inflatable thing holding a cocktail grinning at the camera. In the background were 3 kids in school uniforms, holding backpacks looking frustrated at mum who was behaving like a toddler!!
My brother is a deputy. His 1st day was spent playing with blocks in the kindy room in the morning with new kindy kids who were crying for mum, followed by morning tea in the staffroom with mums who were crying for their kindy kids!!
After I sent my kids off to school on day 1 this year I drove to Sydney to get alongside an aunt who has depression, is an alcoholic and is suicidal. It was from one crazy loud extreme to the other. I stayed there 3 days, so I totally missed the new-school-year angst! Tim navigated it beautifully, much better than I!!
Our house is tough too in the mornings. They all like to be woken at certain times, so I do that, then I leave them to it! Howy rushes around in a noisy whirlwind type state; Eva emerges calm and serene and barely says a word and is often gone before I realise where she is (which sounds nice but is pretty hard to take, I’d love to give her a hug, make eye contact with her, offer to help her… but she is determined to make her lunch and be completely independent. She’s like a tenant, not an offspring.). Sarah is happy one day, teary the next – not at all predictable so I just have to wait and see what the morning brings! I make hers and Howy’s lunches while they get ready. I don’t mind doing that, I quite like it actually, but I respect that everyone is different and I only have 3, not 4.
So seeing as you give me a window into your lovely family, I feel it’s only right and fair you have windows into others’! I work from 8.30am 3 mornings a week, so that’s a bit crazier, but on those days I make the 2 lunches the night before and remind then I won’t be here after 8.15am. All 3 walk or ride to school unless it’s raining or bitterly cold, so that helps too.
Today I DO NOT work! I love it. It’s so peaceful and I deliberately hardly have anything ever on on a Monday!
love to you all, x meegs
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