Parents either love school holidays or hate them.
Maybe because I escape the house every day to head to work, I fall into the first category. School holidays in our house are an excuse to be together all day, wear our PJ’s, make a mess and check off all the fun items on the wish list we stick on the fridge at the end of every term.
We hang sheets between chairs and transform our living area into a Bedouin playground . . . using pillows, towels, pegs and torches. Once I give in to the mess and relax, we have a blast. We bake cakes, decorate chicken pies with our initials in pastry and make Smarties biscuits.
There’s a little bit of control that every modern mum just has to let go of once in a while. And trust me: when you do, it’s liberating!
The kids love helping me cook, so to hell with the mess, I can sweep up flour later. So what if the Smarties aren’t centred, the icing is a gross shade of blue and crayons cover the coffee table? The ironing can pile up in the corner while we have a pyjama day.
When the kids were smaller, we’d go to the video store and hire classics from my childhood such as Mary Poppins and The Jungle Book. There is something blissful about not going anywhere, not having to dress up. Our biggest excursion is often to the supermarket for more supplies.
Dinners are a little more extravagant than usual. By that I mean anything that takes longer than twenty minutes. We trawl through those admired but largely untouched cookbooks for inspiration, and because I’m not rushing out the door to get Nick to footy training or collecting Talia from ballet, I can put a roast in the oven.
When you live life by a routine it’s so nice to throw that out the window once in a while. It’s grounding to just chill out.
It goes without saying that as adults we’re busy. Always overcommitted, with somewhere to be and someone to see. But what about our kids? Are we forcing them to grow up via our diaries and timetables, always a training session to go to, a friend’s house to be at, homework to complete?
I know how much I crave just plonking on the couch and vegging out in front of my favourite mindless TV show, so why would my kids be any different?
The bulk of our summer break is usually spent at home, having barbecues, playing backyard cricket, inviting friends to stop by, or going to the beach and doing as little as possible.
In winter we bunker down, hold movie marathons, have friends over and drink hot chocolate.
With so much on the agenda all year, sometimes we just need to stop. Be together. Do nothing. Eat popcorn on a Saturday night and play a game of Uno.
And it’s so important to let the kids entertain themselves. Holidays don’t have to be an endless array of theme parks, excursions and play dates. What is wrong with finding worms, drawing or building tents?
When life feels like every moment is accounted for in order to make it all run smoothly (and, believe me, I’m a big advocate of routines) it’s nice to sometimes throw the agenda right out the window. Savour having nowhere to be. And let kids be kids . . . let them find ways to entertain themselves. Send them into the backyard, let them take over the floor with a puzzle and stay up late watching reruns of Tom and Jerry.
May my biggest dilemma be trying to work out the secret password to the tent.
It won’t be long before they don’t want to do this stuff with me. Their friends will be more exciting and important.
And when that happens I’ll probably long for the time I spent putting the house back to normal, folding the sheets, putting the mixmaster back in the cupboard and packing the face paints away for another time.