Back to School

The Facebook pages were breathing a collective sigh of relief on Wednesday.

Almost every second comment on my Homepage read something like: “Yay, kids back at school. Phew, I made it!”

I’m not sure how I feel about it.

On the one hand, the job I have held down for the past six weeks as a referee is over. The fighting had become unbearable and my empty threats, along with the naughty corner, had long worn thin. Finally in the last week of holidays, after mum suggested I take something away they love, I cottoned on to a new form of punishment. Äs a result, teddy, rabbit and baby – their respective favourite cuddly toys – spent long hours sitting in their own “naughty corner”, on top of the highest cupboard in the kitchen.

This proved excruciating for they could see them but not have them.

Then one day Cadeyn decided Jai’s second favouite cuddly toy, lion, should join his own naughty teddy up on the shelf. Unable to reach, he threw him up in the air where lion disappeared over the top shelf and down the back of the gigantic fridge never to be seen again.

Cade’s teddy did an all-nighter on the shelf for that one.

So while I’m pleased that three bored kids are back into their kindy and schooling routines, I’m less than enthused about the pressure of deadlines.

This is made harder by the fact we are still living in limbo. Not knowing when the property we are looking after will sell, we kept the kids attending school on the other side of town intending to return there. So all this tripping across town makes for tight schedules, though we are constantly running late.

It’s very important to Cade that we get to school on time and, if I let it slip that we are running late, I cop a tirade of verbal abuse all the way there. He was particularly nervous this week so I made sure I got up extra early and even forewent my morning run to get it right.

But I stuffed up by not ordering his stationery on time. I don’t know what I was expecting when I parked outside the shop and ran in several weeks ago. But, having left the kids in the car, I obviously wasn’t expecting to be handed a list of 15 items such as “Clever Kiwi My Writing Book 2 Year 4 Plus, and 3F1 Limp Cover, Ruled 12mm, 32 Leaf Notebook”

Looking up from my list to the large shop spilling with random stationery I had no idea where to start. It was a hot day and I could already hear the kids fighting in the car so I left with the list, sans stationery, and ordered it instead online some time later.

By Wednesday it still hadn’t arrived and someone was not happy.

“But what will I write on?” he whimpered all the way to school. “Will all the other kids have their stationery? I don’t want to be the only one with no books!”

After dropping him off, I went home and found the stationery waiting on the door step.

This was when I checked my emails with some leading onto Facebook. In amongst the communal elation were photos of first dayers swimming in their new oversize school uniforms, accompanied by comments from weepy mums stating how fast their babies had grown. Some children had been clingy, others (like mine) had been happy to see their parents go. All the first-time mothers (and some fathers), I noticed at drop off, had been wearing sun glasses.

I suppose I should say something nostalgic here about how I will miss the kids but, while the holidays were fun, I won’t miss playing referee, they enjoy school and kindy and return home full of their news and actually happy to see each other. So early morning rush and verbal abuse aside, it’s more pleasant all-round.

Yes, I think I just caught myself breathing that mutual sigh of relief.