Read this on galpod.com.
We came back from a week in Jamaica with friends. It was wonderful. We are a little jet-lagged (try convincing kids to go to sleep when their bodies are telling them it's swimming time!) but we are not at all complaining.
School holidays in England are interesting. The school year is divided into three terms, with a two-week break between them (i.e., Christmas and Easter) and six weeks for summer. Then, in the middle of each term, there's a week-long "half-term" break. As far as I can tell, this is done so that privileged families like us can go on holidays. Sure, you can say that the break is good for learning. I like that the kids don't have to go through more than 7 or 8 weeks of school in a row. But an argument for the other side is that these things break up the routine and make it harder for some children (read: my daughter) to go back to learning. What we get is at best 4-5 weeks that are "top performance" because the week after the break is "settling in week" (yes, every time. Yes, she's seven years old. No, I don't think it'll get better anytime soon), and the week before is the exciting "here comes the break" week. So, really, some children (read: my daughter) are emotionally available for learning 30 weeks out of the school year, tops.
Another thing about these holidays is that we are fortunate, not only to be able to afford to go on such holiday destinations such as Jamaica but to be able to afford me not working and taking care of the children during all those breaks. Parents whose job doesn't align with school holidays are strapped for a good chunk of the year for "arrangements"—one parent takes some time off or "works from home", or you put the kids in a camp (the good ones cost quite a bit), or you rope in grandparents/nannies/kindly neighbours. In short, the Western workplace is not designed to accommodate parents, which is just odd to me. It's like we decided, as a society, that we don't really care about the continuation of the species.
Anyways. We got to spend a week in the sun, by the pool and the beach, with good friends. And we came back to a WEEK of SUN in LONDON. I think perhaps the world had gone a bit crazy while we were away. This week is about getting back and going through the immense backlog of emails, and trying to get everything back on track. I'm reading Mr Loverman this week for my Book Club which is this Friday so I won't have much time for anything else. It's too bad that I didn't get my copy before leaving, as this would have been perfect to read on a Jamaican beach, but I'll survive :)
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