Tuesday 21 April 2015

Back to School Fail. Again.

The kids went back to school on Monday. Just.

There were no winter uniforms prepared. Why would there be? My kids are notorious for not wanting to wear shirts, let alone jumpers and on Saturday, we got sunburnt watching Mr 9 play footy for an hour.

Winter uniforms were not even considered.

Until Monday morning when we woke up to torrential rain, near-cyclonic winds and temperatures forgotten since last year.

Miss 6 wanted to wear her long pants. A fair request.

Except that Miss 6 appears to have grown 6cm since she last wore these pants. Request denied. I waved it off, promising to fix the pants as soon as possible (a lie, I don't sew) and reassuring her with "You'll be right, sweetie,  it's always too warm in the classroom." *fake smile, convincing nod.



Somehow over the 2 week school holiday I'd completely forgotten my commitment to being more organised. If it was only about the uniforms, I wouldn't be so hard on myself (or on my husband - he's the parent too). But it was about so much more than the uniforms.

We woke Monday morning to a shit-storm in the kitchen. The previous night's cleanup didn't really exist. We had not prepared kid's lunches and we were lacking key ingredients. The kids were grumpy about returning to school and were uncooperative as a result. Even the bloody dog was high maintenance.

When it came time to pack their bags, I realised they hadn't been responsibly dealt with at the end of last term. I found food containers, notes and items belonging to someone else's children because, quite clearly, 2 weeks isn't long enough to empty a freakin' bag.

I want so desperately to tell you that we  learnt a lot on Monday morning, but unfortunately, we didn't. On Tuesday morning, we woke to worse weather, pants that still don't fit and insufficient ingredients to prepare lunch boxes. Their raincoats spent the day at home on the back of chairs. Dry chairs, I should add.

Husband got to enjoy a 7am trip to the shops (in the pouring rain) just so we could feed our freezing children at school. They might be cold, but I'll be damned if I'll let them starve too.

To be fair, it wasn't possible to do anything on Monday night because Game of Thrones was on. You understand.

Perhaps I did learn something however because last night, I took measures to ensure this morning didn't go quite as pear-shaped. I made lunches, I prepared breakfast (sandwiches that simply got toasted this morning - you know how I feel about toasties!) and organised today's uniforms.

Mmmmmm......


Despite wretched weather yet again (and still grumpy children), this morning was seamless in comparison. Breakfast went smoothly, bags were packed with all appropriate gear and we had time to cuddle on the lounge together for five minutes. Feel free to place your Mother of the Year vote for me whenever you're ready.

It may not have been the best start to a term, but at least we got our kids back to school on the right day. That's something.


How's your week been?


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