In progress #007
The kids are on break and here's how it's going
The kids broke up from school last week!
The pros:
It means the end of term frenzy is over: After processing a lot of my emotions writing this article last week, I felt okay about the end of term and my son’s final days of primary school. I’m proud of him and me and that’s a lovely feeling.
The kid-work juggle feels a lot better: Last year I was in a new job, and scheduled in loads of clubs for the kids so that I could focus on work. This year I’ve taken some time off here and there, booked in a limited number of days of clubs, will work from home a bit more, and have the kids home with me while I work. There are definitely some benefits to the kids getting older, and this is one of them.
We’ve got a new summer routine: I don’t really want the kids to just hang around and watch TV all day, so I’ve made a plan to get them doing stuff and being at least somewhat productive on those days when I’m working and they have no plans.
In the morning they have to do at least 3 out of the following things to earn screen time after lunch:
Go for a walk (at least 20 minutes) — this will usually be with me, but if they don’t want to come when I go they can go together later on in the morning.
Shower — I’m trying really hard to get them to take a morning shower, because although they don’t smell yet, the day is around the corner when they’ll need it!
Tidy one zone for at least 10 minutes — because the mess in the house tends to multiply when they’re home all the time.
Read for 30 minutes — because they have a stack of unread books to read and once they start, they usually read for longer.
“Have you been listening to a parenting podcast again?” was the immediate response to this suggestion. The cheek!
(I did get served a random parenting influencer on Instagram who shared something like this in a reel, but we can keep that between ourselves.)
I’ve also written out a long list of things they can do that isn’t asking me what to do.
Listen to an audiobook.
Make art (and tidy it up).
Make scrapbooks from all the scraps you have saved for the last year saying you’ll make your scrapbook ‘when you have time’.
Play with the diabolo.
Do some knitting.
Go through your boxes of old drawings (and tidy it up).
Choose a recipe to cook together or for me to make for supper (and go out to buy the ingredients).
Do Wandsworth test prep — T to act as tutor.
Play a board game.
Listen to music in bed.
Start a research project.
They don’t need to do this 7 days a week, so it’s just for those days when I’m working and they’re at home and bored. But so far, it’s going pretty well. They seem to actually like it. I’ll let you know if it’s continued through to the end of the summer!
The cons
My brain. Last year it feels like I messed up so many dates and there was something wrong with my schedule every week. I was sure that wouldn’t happen this year because we’re so much less scheduled this year, but then I realise I booked our Airbnb for the wrong start date in August, meaning we would arrive with nowhere to sleep. Ooops. Hopefully that’s the only mistake I’ll have made this year, but I’m not banking on it.
The bickering. My kids’ arguing annoyed me so much last week I actually cancelled a local trip while we were mid-route. How do you stop the constant back and forth?? As an only child, I do not understand how they don’t see there is a permanent play mate in their house with them!
July in progress
A few of the things I’ve enjoyed over the last few weeks:
📺 TV:
I just finished Pluribus and enjoyed it so much! What would you do if you woke up and the whole world had become a hive mind, with everyone’s personlity vanishing in an instant? They can’t hurt you, they are mildly pleasant and will essentially do anything you ask. Really fun idea and so far, I love how they have executed it. Gutted that it ended on such a cliffhanger.
I am extremely not into watching the world cup, but we did watch the semi-finals and most of the finals. T was devastated at England’s loss, and I had to have words about getting more resilient if he wanted to have England as his team, because this will happen every four years..
📚 Books: I finished:
Remarkably Bright Creatures — told partly from the POV of an octopus, I was worried this would be too quirky for me, but I really loved it and immediately watched the movie on Netflix, which I also loved. And it took me down a Gidget rabbit hole, which I also loved, so good experience all round.
A Family Matter — heart breaking story about a woman who discovers she is a lesbian and has her child taken away as a result, and the story of the child decades later finding out what really happened to her mother. Beautiful.
Reading has been slower than normal this month as downstairs I’ve started two books and not enjoyed them enough to finish reading them, and upstairs I’m reading the second crescent city book, which is about 1000 pages long.
🛍️ Loving:
The lido. The lido, the lido, the lido. I’m not sure how many swims I’ll fit in while the kids are on holiday because I went with them last weekend and remembered very clearly that I don’t enjoy going with them. This is very much a solo activity for me, and it brought me so much joy over the past month. Hopefully I’ll get in a few early morning swims when they’re with my parents on Friday mornings, otherwise I’ll be back before the season closes in September!
I did The Traitors Experience with work and it was absolutely brilliant. So fun, both when in the room working out who the traitors were, and after I was murdered (!) and sent to another room where we could watch the game on a screen and sabotage or support their efforts to get more gold.
My garden continues to be bountiful. We harvested the potatoes and ate them over a couple of delicious meals. The tomatoes are turning red. The raspberries which I didn’t expect to get any of until next year are appearing. How good it will all look after a few weeks of the current hosepipe ban, I don’t know, but for now it is flourishing. Turns out all I needed to do was feed my plants occasionally, who knew!
How are you? How has your month been? What have you been watching and reading and listening to? How are you handling the summer if you have kids? Drop me a reply or leave a comment and tell me what’s on your list.
PS! The Joy of Beginning is always free but…
Thank you for reading! The Joy of Beginning will always be free to access, but I’ve decided to turn on payments just on the off-chance you think ‘hey, I’d love to support Katie and buy her some art supplies’.
There will be no additional content for paid subscribers, but you can upgrade to paid to support me and this hobby I enjoy so much. If you would like to support without a monthly / annual payment, you can also buy me a coffee :)
If it helps my brother is 45yo and is still rendered devastated when England lose. He says its something you learn to live with 😉