MIA: "School's back and already I'm falling apart"

By MIA FREEDMAN

School went back today and already my happy family is falling apart. I am not my best in the morning and neither is my daughter. We are not morning people.

And over the holidays, I have been lulled into a lovely sense of tranquility by the lack of structure. While we were on holidays, obviously, it was super cruisey. Beach life. Late nights. Lazy mornings. Nobody had to be anywhere. No demands of any kind.

When we came home and Jason and I returned to work, it was a gentle re-entry because the kids were still on holidays and only the adults had to be up, dressed and out the door by 8am. Actually 8:30am because there was no traffic.

It’s astonishingly easy to leave the house on time when the only thing you have to worry about is how to transport your green smoothie to work.

The degree of difficulty has upped steadily since then. My 4yo went back to pre-school last week, my eldest went back to high school yesterday and Coco went into 2nd class today.

Naturally, things fell apart immediately. My daughter gets very anxious and doesn’t like change. Even though she wasn’t starting a new school, she had a new teacher and a new classroom and that was enough to tip her over the edge. And naturally, she dragged me with her, the rest of the family hurtling down in my wake.

It’s been an emotionally charged 24 hours not made any easier by the fact we arrived late for ‘registration’ at her school yesterday which went from 2-3pm. (I am self-employed and have almost complete control of my working hours and STILL I struggle to fit in with the school clock which appears to operate oblivious of the outside world but anyway…)

I am going to write a post about being late because I have realised it is a chronic problem for me – and by association, my children.

Things just got worse this morning. While trying to talk my daughter through her anxieties and explain to my youngest why he can no longer watch the iPad in the morning, wipe bottoms, retrieve school bags, lunch boxes, drink bottles and every other bit of paraphernalia required to get a family of 5 out the door by 8am (by the time I got into the car it was 8:14 – FAIL), I kept trying not to lose it.

First day! La  la la la la!

But oh man…..I’m so not match fit. And don’t even get me started on the pile of school forms I have to fill out and the pile of books demanding to be covered in bloody contact that await me when I get home from work.

How long until the next school holidays?

(If you liked this post, you’ll probably also like this one from Kate Hunter: “Fact: There is no need to cover schoolbooks.”)