Children are tying their shoe laces and heaving up backpacks all over the country, jumping on buses, bikes and mum's taxi on the road back to school.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
There are parents who mourn the end of the summer holidays - the lazy days by the pool, the lack of routine - but I'm not generally one of them.
First of all, you'd need a pool, and the chance to be lazy, but as a pool-less mother with a job, I don't qualify on either count.
So I'm one of those mums who secretly breathes a sigh of relief as I try not to push my progeny out the door with a shove.
I love them, but a return to routine is good for all of us.
We all need a sense of purpose and order in our lives...None of this sleeping in til noon and frolicking at the beach. Sounds awful, right?
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, but the reverse is equally true.
Too much rest is just a hair's breath away from squalor and a life of destitution (or that's how it feels when my kids are relaxing and I still have to work).
Also, too much laying around watching Netflix makes Mum a nagging grump.
I'm starting to think that maybe I'm just jealous...
It's funny, because at the end of Term 4 I'm usually desperate for the holidays to come.
Those last few weeks feel like we're crawling over glass to get to the finish line.
It's not so much school I resent; it's all the extra-curricular activities that require my driving expertise and vigilant logistical coordination.
Not being gifted in this department, there are always juggling balls hitting the floor.
So the holidays at least provide relief from that.
But of course, what's at first a relief can later become a source of irritation.
Now we're all champing at the bit to get back into the old activities (we'll see how long that lasts).
Swings and roundabouts.
It all goes to prove that change is as good as a (summer) holiday.