Like many parents over the last 6 months, I have discovered a newfound respect for teachers. Homeschooling my 2 primary aged children was a lot like herding cats and I honestly have no idea how teachers manage with a class of 30.
We started off well, there was a timetable and a plan to get everything done by lunchtime so that we could do exciting things in the afternoons. But that very quickly descended into chaos with me begging and cajoling them to “please, please, please just write one more sentence. I will give you chocolate”.
When the announcement came that schools would reopen in September and it was vitally important that children should attend, I’m sure I’m not the only parent who cheered and started to count down the days.
I had lists for my lists of all the things that the children needed, the nursery had confirmed that my 3 year old was able to use all 5 of his funded sessions (2 and a half completely child-free days sounded like heaven), everything was bought in advance and meticulously labelled. The night before they all went back to school I had created beautiful lunches, uniform was ironed and the alarm was set. Even the dog had strict instructions to behave so that mummy could enjoy her newfound freedom.
The first day came and went in a bit of a blur. I dropped them all at school, waved the teenager off in his taxi and went for a walk with the dog. For the first time in 6 months, I enjoyed a hot cup of tea without someone screaming at me because they needed something. The children all had a fantastic time seeing their friends and came out with stories of new socially distanced games their teachers had found for them to play.
It was absolute heaven…until I remembered that I still need the alarm tomorrow and there is now a never-ending pile of uniform to iron 🙈
I’m not a morning person, so now I’m playing that dangerous game of seeing how many times I can press snooze before I am running late. But it’s worth it, for those few hours of peace and the relief of not needing to try and explain how to do long division to a child who really doesn’t want to listen.
So, thank you, teachers. Thank you for everything you do…and I apologise in advance if I press snooze too many times and end up running to the gate with bed hair and my T-shirt on back to front.
