Summer Holidays

I've been gone for a while I know.  Mix of a lot of things, but hopefully I am more sorted and can start this up again.

It is the summer holidays!!

Six weeks or so of no school, no routines, and freedom!!

Like most lone parents (and probably just parents in general) summer holidays fill me with a mix of joy and cold dread.

I get my babies for the good stuff.  Not just the day to day routine of going back and forth to school, and shovelling in dinner to be out of the house again in time for beavers/brownies/swimming/gym, but the actual BEING with my children, enjoying the people that they are growing into, playing, having fun.




But then again, there is no routine, no going to activities, and I get my babies all day, every day... ALL day.  EVERY day - where they can fight with each other, and with me, and not let me think for 5 mins.

I am always wary of telling them "this week we shall do x, y, z" or even "tomorrow we shall do x, y, z" because holidays are unpredictable.  With the best will in the world I can plan to go to Moors Valley (trees, play area etc) tomorrow, but then it can pour with rain/the car break down/a child be awake all night etc so I am not physically capable of tramping about Moors Valley.  Then they have their crushed little faces because Mummy failed to deliver.  So instead I decided to go with Wing It.  I like Wing It.  I wake up, look out of the window, and take their moods and my mood into account before planning things.

Alas, B needs routine.  A fortnight in to Wing It and she had turned into stroppy brat from hell taking every negative feeling in her head out on the rest of us.  Sooooooooooooo... new plan.  The rest of us are on Wing It, but after a Very Grown Up talk with B, we discussed that she doesn't cope with Wing It so she is now on the Maybe plan.  I'm not as spontaneous as I would like to be - Wing It is generally me just not telling them my plans for the next day jic (just in case), so now B knows the tentative plans on the proviso that she doesn't tell the others, and that she understands that they may change.  Turns out she is far happier with pre-warned possible change than a mass expansive of No Plan.

It is a learning curve summer, but so far, despite wanting to curl up and hide when the fighting gets too much, it is good.

I am seeing just how grown up B has become.  I am seeing the Dude blossom into himself - he's finally grasped reading!!!  Over the past few weeks I have seen Strawb get better and better at speech and even lost her lisp yesterday (ok, I am kinda crushed by that).

Been doing this lone parent thing for 2 years now, this parent thing for 9 years, and this is the summer that I finally feel like I am getting the hang of it.