I love the school holidays. LOVE them. But I’ve been guilty this week of looking forward to my teacher husband being back at work so I can crack on and get some work done myself. In peace and quiet. Without a nagging husband or three year old hassling me for things. Today I made a decision to stop attempting the juggle and get out of the house. 

Work deadlines are knocking at my door. Forms need to be filled in for important things. Phone calls need to be made. Washing needs to be done. Carpets need to be hoovered. But today, after another hour of grumpiness and raised voices, anger from a three year old who is bored, a husband who wants to be left to sleep or potter about on his own and me – torn, frazzled and in the middle of it all – I threw my hands in the air and said enough is enough.

We were going out. Together. As a family. With smiles on our faces and a positive attitude, even if it bloody well killed us.

Turned out to be the best decision I’ve made all week.

We paddled in the sea, jumped tiny waves and drew letters in the sand. Frog and the NLM went searching for shells and I resisted the urge to check my phone, instead wasting a good five minutes making a beach garden in the sand.

We returned home calmer and less shouty.

My new-found serenity couldn’t even be shattered by my three year old putting my favourite candle down the toilet, “cleaning the germs” off the toilet seat with my posh soap, or drawing in biro on my brand new tablecloth.

The beach really does do wonders.

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She has “in jokes” with him. She tickles him. She teases him. And she can’t get enough of him.

Frog and the (self-proclaimed) Northern Love Machine are best buddies at the moment. Forever friends. BFF’s.

Whatever you want to call it, they’re getting along very well. So well, in fact, I’m starting to feel a bit left out.

My husband is a teacher, you see. So during the school holidays he gets to stay at home with our two year old while I go to work. The whole school holiday routine is far more relaxed than non-holidays, as I don’t have the mad rush to collect Frog from the childminder’s – and I don’t have the afternoons grappling with tantrums on my own.

The downside is that everything moves a couple of hours back. With no rush to get out of the door in the morning, father and daughter laze in their respective beds until around 8.30am (by which time I’m already four hours into my working day). That means lunch is later, so nap time is later, so bedtime is later.

Theoretically, the later afternoon nap should give me some time during the afternoon to get my writing work done, leaving me my evenings free to, you know, sleep.

In reality though, I’m the queen of faffers. It turns out I NEED that childcare deadline, to force myself to leave the office and avoid trying to finish just One. More. Thing.

When I get home, I know Frog will wake any minute so I’m hesitant to put on my Work At Home uniform until she’s safely tucked up in bed.

None of that really matters though. Because I have a happy, relaxed husband. I have a happy, relaxed child. They are spending LOTS of quality time together. And I have six weeks free from Mother Guilt, without having to constantly wonder if I can manage the juggle.

I like having a new member on the team in the afternoons. I like those moments of being able to sit down for a minute if I’m exhausted, as the NLM and Frog play together. I like that the onus isn’t ALL on me to be the fun one.

But I do look forward to having Frog back to myself for a couple of hours a day once the holidays are over.

Mind you, judging by her current hero worship of her dad, I’m not sure she feels the same.

How about you? How are the school holidays panning out in your house?

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