Things they fail to tell you about school holidaysAfter two weeks off over Easter the kids go back to school and nursery this week. I can’t wait. Having been unable to take any time off over the school holidays apart from the Easter weekend itself I’m so glad they’re over.

Every single toy we own has been strewn over the living room floor day in, day out, the dirty laundry basket seems to have turned into Mary Poppins’ magic bag and I shudder to think how much money we’ve spent with absolutely nothing to show for it other than a few discarded CBeebies magazines.

Here’s what I’ve discovered about school holidays so far:

1. Coming up with different lunch ideas each day is a nightmare. There’s a lot to be said for the free school meals BB gets until she’s seven and the lunches they give Little B at nursery. By week two I resorted to stirring butter through pasta for tea. Which is fine, right?

2. You shell out money hand over fist. As well as the weekly food bill going up because of all the food they’re eating there’s the cost of all the activities and days out to keep them occupied. I know people who actually put their kids in to childcare during the holidays in order to save money.

3. There’s more washing to do. With the luxury of not needing to wear school uniform BB insisted on wearing a different outfit each day. Dresses with a top underneath and a cardigan, hand-wash only tutus, skirts and leggings – the list goes on.

4. Working from home is a bad idea. We were lucky enough to have granny daycare for three days each week, and I naively thought we could ‘make the best of it’ on the remaining two days. To say it was stressful is an understatement: I’m surprised I didn’t have a nervous breakdown.

5. All the wine you have to drink. I was gasping by bath-time each night. I now understand those people who start right after the school run.

No doubt I’ll discover there are more things they fail to tell you about school holidays in due course, just like the things they fail to tell you about toddlers and things they don’t tell you about breastfeeding, but for now I’m just glad we’re getting back to normal this week.

How about you? Are you getting back to normal after the holidays this week? Or aren’t you there yet?

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