So the summer holidays – yipppeeee….? After lockdown ‘home schooling’, an all-too-brief flutter of activity at the school gate (barely a few weeks of classes), and now the end of term. All three girls shuffled home for that last time, kicked off their shoes, dumped their bags at the bottom of the stairs and ran off into endless weeks of…. well ‘the days are just packed,’ right Calvin? [Calvin and Hobbes.]
In the abandoned bags I find their school reports. They each get 100% for attendance. Two get a ‘CONGRATULATIONS! you’ve never been late’ message. While Emily has a ‘TIMES LATE; 1’. One out of three girls was late once – how is that possible, a photo finish?
Emily’s first. Nothing unexpected, I keep reading, yes thought so, yes I agree, oh that’s good, nothing unexpected. I keep flicking through, hoping that I’ve missed the bit that says “School will be open throughout the holiday.” But it definitely doesn’t say that.
I make the stupid mistake of calling my sister. She is a teacher. “School holidays have started,” I say. “What am I going to with them?”
“To be honest, there’s loads you could be doing. Learning while on holiday is really important” she said. I’ll spare you, reader. Needless to say she didn’t draw breath for several minutes. And at best I am a mediocre parent. Most like a rubbish one.
When I hang up, the sound of her voice was replaced with the sound of Frozen II. But apart from ‘Some things never change’ no other noise was coming from the living room. I think for a moment; maybe I should turn the subtitles on – English first, then Spanish. Perhaps we can find dubbed versions online. They can watch the movie as many times as they like (to be honest this is the same number they are likely to watch it anyway) – and I will have ticked the ‘learning while on holiday’ box.
Triple Trouble Tribe 