Juggling: summer holidays and a single parent
So – another long school holiday approaches and I force my unwilling mind to consider how I’m going to get any work done, at a time when the business just might be finally taking off (that’ll have scuppered that, “saying” it out loud!).
An obvious and simple solution is to book my two into a holiday club for the duration, but even when a good proportion can be covered by tax credits for low-income parents, it can still be a pricey option and they don’t enjoy it so much now, especially my 10 year old who is already a bit beyond most of the activities enjoyed by the younger children. And to be honest the lie-in is quite nice – well the idea that one could be had, all being well…
The local council includes some pretty good days at the leisure centre and if I can bear to battle into the centre of town, that may be a favoured option. My girl will throw herself into everything and have a great time, my boy too when he gets there, but he’s not keen on new stuff, and much as I’d like to co-ordinate with his chums’ mums, we’re none of us that organised before the places all get booked up. There is a wonderful sounding holiday club at the nearby private school – wonderful activities and I know they’d have great fun.
But then I consider what my ex-husband has in mind. As we’ve no formal agreement in place (and I can hear my sister groaning at this when she reads it! Hi Sis!) and perhaps a sense of guilt that wants to allow flexibility for him, means that I have rather foolishly not put my own business (and personal, for that matter) needs above what he might possibly want. And let’s not even go to the idea of his having no regard for my needs. I know I should just make a formal arrangement but just cannot face the repercussions of that just now – he will sulk and be grumpy and cross to the point of me never having to wonder where the kids get their attitudes from.
- Image by Ingorrr via Flickr
Even while writing this I can hear the advice that friends will offer, and the advice I would give them in the same situation – so will indeed just get on with it and everything and everyone else will just have to work around what will work best for me and my business and my children. Why is it that I do not give my business, which provides my income, for my future home, and indeed for my old age if I’m lucky, the priority it deserves. I cannot imagine many men doing this, nor many women. Time to grow a pair and stop putting obstacles in my path to success. /rant
Anyway – I would love to think that the kids were of an age where they could amuse themselves a good deal. Remember the days when we were kids and would just be gone straight after breakfast, roaming the woods and fields for the day and returning when we felt like it, and that was OK (more than OK as far as my mother was concerned). It is a different world now – for a start I’m not at home pottering about in house-wifely fashion as my and my friends’ mums mostly were, and I am pretty sure that I’m more fun to be with than my mother was, even if I am almost 20 years older than she was when undertaking this motherhood business.
What I will do is chat with friends to see if we can help each other out, though my rash offer to one friend with 3 very lively boys I may have to flee from – with energy levels at the point where a holiday of my own is going to be a necessity, never mind a “nice to have” this year.
Yes – I’m going to juggle it – bribe, plead, and generally cajole the kids into working with me, or it’s off to the holiday club with them!
Wish me luck…
