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August 29, 2006

The Nannies in The Times (UK)

A CLASS OF THEIR OWN
As a new school year looms, Catherine O'Brien advises that a firm routine can give children a head start, while Michele Kirsch smooths the move to ‘big school’.

Last Thursday, distracted by a mound of paperwork, I left the children to their own devices. They did what you might expect any boys of 10 and 13 to do — slobbed around the TV and PlayStation and snacked on Rich Tea biscuits. It was only at 4pm, when they finally roused themselves to kick a football in the garden, that I realised they were still in their pyjamas.
Oh, the bliss of summer holidays! Like every household with school-age children, ours has, over the past six weeks, wound down to a state of sublime idleness. No homework or music practice, no flitting from tennis to swimming, no lunchboxes to prepare and mud-encrusted sports kit to wash.

Mothers, in my experience, fall into one of two camps — those who can’t wait to shove their children back through the school gates, and those who wish the holidays could be stretched into late September. When my own children were at the demanding, bickering, energy-sapping stage, obviously I was among the former. Now that they can make their own toast while I read the papers in bed, well, why would I be in a hurry to restore the tyranny of the school run?

Read the article in full > click here.

Posted by Justine Walsh on August 29, 2006. Send to a friend.