Kaboutjie SA Mommy Blogs by Lynne Huysamen
School holidays are how long? Much to my dismay close on 5 weeks.
The last 4 weeks have been almost impossible to get through. I have my own business, I have a fully equipped baby room in our office with a cot, sleeper couch, pram, toys… everything a mom could possibly need. Umm wait, I don’t have an au pair, ear plugs, a mute button or enough rope to tie them all down with!
My assistant Melissa is a single mom of a 3 year old and a 9 year old and I am a mom to a 1 year old and a 3 year old. We have managed between the 2 of us (wait… 6 of us!) to keep the business open and mostly running since Mid December. I wonder how other parents manage this? What do single parents that have to work full time throughout December do? Especially if they are in retail and have to work public holidays like Christmas and New Years day?
Melissa took 1 week leave at the beginning of school holidays and I took 1 week towards the end. The few weeks in between we split the days so I worked mornings with my 2 kids and she took over in the afternoon with her 2 children. There were a few days we worked together to get certain things done. It has been a nightmare. There are staplers, scissors and all sorts of scary things that they get hold of. On one occasion I thought her son was going to take my daughter out with a heavy duty punch!
The children get bored, naughty and overtired, they seek attention which we cannot give and it ends up in tears: for mommies and children.
The school holidays are 5 weeks long over the festive season and I am not sure I am going to make it to the end with my sanity in tact.
Today is my 1st day in more than a month that I have been childless and I feel so relaxed, Sorry I do miss my kids but being a single parent and living an hour and a half away from my family makes this a bit hard at times.So all I can say is hoooooray the holidays are “verby” 🙂
These school holidays got way to long for my two bigger ones, they started doing the most wonderful things and irritating each other, I will have to find them more entertainment for them for the next and upcoming holidays. Glad its back to school!!
I’ve been a work at home mom since my daughter was born and yes it has been a struggle. At first, I thought being a work at home mom (or WAHM as it’s called here) would be the ideal situation. However, my work time bleeds over into family time and vice versa. Well that was true when she was much younger. Now, we have a much more stable work at home life/family life and it’s working out beautifully for everyone. The work at home mom lifestyle is especially good for a woman with older children. But when they are younger, it’s not always ideal as both halves of your life will constantly compete for attention. Best to get as much help as possible.
Seeing this im at least not there yet but my time is coming of school holiday times but at least a while still.