What if life was one long school holiday?

Press, 15 February 1986, Page 14

What if life was one long school holiday?

I have survived the long summer holidays on three continents but the older the children get (or maybe it’s the older I get) the harder they seem. By the end of the holidays (thankfully just concluded) I was saying “Yes” to everything, believing it would be less trouble in the long run. But why didn’t you say “no” asked my long-suf-fering husband after I had inadvertently given permission for the children to dye their hair with food colouring and to make oatmeal face packs which used a dozen eggs and left sticky egg white and oatmeal all through the house. Flies everywhere! When one of the girls asked if she could pierce her cousin’s ears, I didn’t even listen but zombie-

like answered ... “Yes of course.” Five minutes later they reappeared, eyes shining

like some sort of religious zealots. One kid had pierced the other kid’s ear with a pin and had already Inserted one of my diamond earrings in the bleeding lobe. “But you said I could,” she wailed as I rushed off to throw up. How was I to know that my own flesh and blood was so simple minded! Towards the end of the school holidays, I took five children (three of mine and two cousins) to town and managed to lose the lot. My first reaction was one of profound relief until I remembered my responsibilities. Perhaps the white slave traders had captured them. Or was that too much to hope for? , Believe it or not, they were found by their mother/aunt respectively,

a hard pressed professional working woman. She returned them to me and reported later that I : had muttered in a manner both sullen and ungrateful ... “Trust you to find them!” At this time of the year my heart goes out to parents who are also teachers and particularly to mothers who teach children the same age as their own. The break from home to classroom must seem like going from the frying pan into the fire or at least from the fire into the frying pan. Experts say one way to cope with stress is not to take your work home with you. But how is the teacher-parent to find such relief? A friend of mine began Teaching while four of

her young brothers and sisters were still at school. When she went home for the holidays, she found that she couldn’t stand them. As she pointed out, it wasn’t anything personal, but they were just like her students at school from whom she was hop-

ing to get a break. Perhaps more experienced teachers don’t mind. Or could it be that teachers are leaving the force in greater numbers because children, both at home and at school, are becoming increasingly demanding, making teaching

a most exhausting career? So before you begrudge teachers better pay and conditions, think of how much they would have to pay you before you would be prepared to have the kids for the school holidays and the term time too.