That Back to School Feeling!

The Olympics hadn't even started and you more than likely had the prospect of your annual foreign escape to look forward to. Holiday clubs, summer camps and other various activities were booked and ready to go, waiting for their first influx of excitable/dubious/naive/cynical inmates to arrive.

And now five weeks have been washed away

Vanished into thin air! Where on earth did all that time go? I just can't believe that my children go back to school next week.

I should be ecstatic. Last week I was feeling decidedly weary of days out to the park, clubs, play dates, picnics, trampolining, cinema, rose petal perfume making and bug hunting. Yet this week I find myself trying to cram in last minute treats in an effort to cement happy summer memories firmly into my kids heads.

Back to school list

I actually feel a bit dispirited at the thought of ticking off my 'back to school list' (which I compiled at the start of the holidays), and traipsing round the shops picking up new pencil cases and lunch bags.

I've figured out why this is though. My kids are forcing me to relive that dreaded back to school feeling. It's an attack on the senses that never leaves you! That autumnal feeling - the morning dew, the early evening nip in the air, long shadows, the smell of wet leaves and bonfires. They all signal the end of freedom and it's deeply embedded in all of us, I'm convinced of it!

Just one more day off!

So to soften the blow of the realisation that, no matter how many times you pray, that 'one more day off' just isn't going to happen, I'll have to do as my mum did and remind the kids of 'what's next'. Halloween, fireworks night and the big one - Christmas!

That's the trick with kids - sew the seed early and when they keep asking when half term is just keep saying 'soon'.

Jayne, Working Mum and Freelance Editor