School holidays

My observation of mothers with children is that they fall into two categories: love the school holidays or hate the school holidays. Which are you?

For many years I was a hater of school holidays. Why?

• None of our usual activities were on, there was just day after day to fill in ourselves.
• When I didn't have children at school, I just wanted our normal routine to continue - we didn't need a break from it, in fact we needed the routine more.
• The summer holidays in particular were so long - 6 to 7 weeks (I know that's not much compared to some other countries where they get 3 months, but it still drags).
• The heat of Adelaide meant even in the summer some days were just too hot to go out, even to the pool.

To put it simply - I could not see the point of school holidays.

Now - ahh, how things have changed - finally I see the point! We have loved the last holidays. Admittedly they were broken up well - 2 weeks lead up to Christmas, 3 weeks family holidays, then 2 more weeks before school went back. This year, and this summer in particular, for the first time, I have loved the school holidays:

• We really needed the break, we stayed home for two weeks when school finished, just playing at home, Mr 7 read lots of books and did Lego and the girls played games for hours, spending much more time together than they can in term time.
• We started sleeping in (well, the grownups mainly!). The kids are old enough now to get up on their own in the mornings and entertain themselves, so often Husband & I could laze in bed till 7:30 or 8am - what a treat! Interestingly, Miss 5 also is showing a desire to stay in bed longer in the mornings, which I am encouraging (for the moment anyway!)
• We could all do things together - no one missed out by being at school or being too young - we all went to the beach, we all went to the pool, we all went out to yum cha.
• We didn't have to be anywhere at any time. I liked the routine when everyone was younger, now I have enjoyed not having one.
• We didn't have to think about library books, school lunches, uniforms being ironed, etc.

Admittedly, by the end, all of us were ready for school to start again. But I have been very pleased about how much we enjoyed the holidays, and how much I was able to relax and enjoy them.

Now I think I love the school holidays!