Sisieta's blog: The parenting carousel

"As we countdown to the Christmas school holidays, it’s beginning to feel a lot like we are on a revolving wheel! So about 12 weeks ago, we had the big "Back to School celebrations." We had always previously given audience to parents’ summer holidays anxieties and their celebrations of surviving the 6/8 weeks time off school but we never really personally shared these sentiments as once our oldest son moved from round-the-clock nursery to pre-prep school, we very quickly adopted a "Luxury day summer holiday camp model." Caveat the financial damage, it worked very well – keeps active son well entertained, happy, enhances social skills, saves our holiday allowances and allows us to maintain very minimal disruption to our routine and work commitments.

As both full-time working parents without much childcare alternatives, we are very accepting of the "Paying for sanity and stability concept"…"It’s just a season, this too shall pass" has become our affirmation when we review bank balances.

However, this summer has seen us sharing all the anxieties and celebrations we previously observed in other parents/families. Our youngest son is a summer baby, and turned 3 years old at the end of August and moved from round the clock nursery childcare to pre-prep school in April. We actually excitedly looked forward to his introduction to our “Luxury day summer holiday camp model”, which turned out to be an oversight of the government legislations binding summer camps! He was still 2 years old at the start of the summer holidays until the very end, and no matter how we tried to utilise mathematical theory in rounding up his age or present him as a very mature 2 year old (which he is coincidentally), our luxury summer camps were firmly being “safe rather than sorry”, and stuck by the rules and politely reminded us that he is still legally 2 years old! Hmmm…quickly thinking on our feet, my mum was visiting on her 6 month summer stint and hubby luckily had some flexibility – between us, we somehow got it covered!

Whilst the catastrophe was being somewhat mitigated, this was the first time for our youngest son since he was 5 months old, of not having an 8-10 hour day in a structured setting surrounded by his peers, which posed a rather underestimated secondary problem.

Managing withdrawal symptoms, the effects of too much TV, too much daytime relaxation and disrupted night time sleeping pattern was surprisingly challenging for us! It made us giggle at times watching big brother strategically manoeuvre his way from his little "Boss Baby" brother some evenings. Lengthy tantrum spells, mischief, dangerous play, and testing boundaries left us counting down the days to our family break!

Spending the last week of the school holidays together as a family touring the Netherlands with no distractions from the kids, enabled us to channel his energy & reset the distorted bits in preparation for his return to school was really "what the doctor ordered".

So, on the 6th of September we fully joined in, I even had a glamorous big hairdo to mark the celebrations as we all skipped to their classrooms with a very grateful heart for the return of normality (well for us) and the very fact that we would never have to go through another summer without the use of our "Luxury day summer camp model" for both kids. PHEW!

Now fast forward 12 weeks and we are magically at the same point of an extremely busy last two weeks run-up to Christmas holidays. All diaries (home, school, work) are fully packed – two lots of nativity plays, dance performances, school carol services, open classroom, away from school choir competitions, kids Xmas discos, and football match fixtures!

The work front is also revving up completely in the opposite direction of the annual calendar, in preparation for a smooth 2018 start! I’m absolutely all for being proactive as perfect preparation avoids poor performance. But it’s becoming increasingly tricky to confidently remember where the kids are meant to be, what to wear, what to pack, what activity payments need to be made (and to whom), costumes to be ordered, and events scheduled to attend. Whilst effectively revising processes, building a team, and creating new frameworks & structures!

Let's just say I trust my memory no more and default to several electronic and human backups! Roll on the 15th of December…it’ll be a Mojito on the rocks double whammy celebration as I too for the first time ever, will break up from work on the same day as school until the 8th of Jan 2018!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS, IT’S REALLY A MERRY GO ROUND….ENJOY AND HAVE FUN IN EACH SEASON!!!"

Sisieta is a Regulatory Compliance Risk professional for a large global firm in the City with two adorable boys aged 7 & 3, and supported by a very hands-on husband.