“So, what have you done these school holidays?”
This question was posed by a well-meaning friend of the family whose own children are grown and flown, and whose grandchildren are still too young for school, let alone school holidays. We’d run into her in the mall, where I was trying to find replacement school shoes for Master Six (who’d lost his last pair yet again), and we’d been to three stores already with no luck. Miss 12 was leaning on the baby’s pram, trying to read a book and walk at the same time, and the baby was systematically divesting her feet of her shoes and socks, one by one, and chucking them on the floor. Our kindly friend addressed her question to Master Six, who stared back at her blankly, then turned and looked at me quizzically.
“Well, we were supposed to go to the zoo yesterday, but it was raining, so…” I started apologetically. “And we couldn’t find a park at the library for story hour so we missed that…”
Yeah. So far, school holidays has been a total bust for our family. Here’s what happened we did on the first day of these school holidays:
- Everyone in the family came down with a 24-hour tummy bug, one person after another
- When I ventured to the chemist for supplies, the car died five minutes from home
- The baby was with me, and we had to walk uphill to get back to the house — without the pram, which wasn’t in the boot
- When we finally got there, huffing and puffing, I discovered that the dog had barfed on the sofa
- Just when I finished cleaning up dog vomit, Master Six spewed all over his bed
- When I went to change his sheets, I realised I’d forgot to put the waterproof mattress protector on his bed the previous time I changed the sheets
Yep. All that in on the first day of the school hols.
Fortunately, this have improved from there… Marginally. Our zoo trip was rained out. We couldn’t get a park at the library for story hour. The DVD player gave up the ghost on family movie night. But we *almost* got to do those things, at least. Maybe next school holidays, we’ll have better luck.
Have your school holidays been a disaster? Email me at editor@totstoteens.co.nz and have a good whinge about it.
Katherine Granich
