I Love School Holidays - And Not For The Reasons You Would Think

School Holidays *sigh!


Words cannot express how much I love thee. The sleeping in (my children have finally reached the age where they can get their own breakfast….Alleluia!!”), the coffee catch ups with friends who I only ever get to see when the chaos of the term has subsided and, of course, the chance to finish my morning cup of tea. As opposed to leaving it half full on the kitchen bench as I rush out the door to work.


But do you know what I love the absolute most?


NO LUNCHBOXES!


I don’t know what it is, but I HATE making school lunches. I have tried any number of ways to make it easier and more bearable.  Doing them the night before, getting up earlier (Don’t know what I was thinking with this one….I don’t get up earlier for anything),even freezing sandwiches on the weekend (Take note - thawed out cheese sandwiches are GROSS!)….and I can’t even put into words what it is about this mundane task that makes me loathe it so! But I do.


And then the school holidays come. And it’s not even the fact that I am a teacher and don’t have to go to work that I look forward to the most….it’s the absence of school lunchboxes.


Maybe it’s the half smooshed Vegemite sandwich that I have to pick out of the lunchbox at the end of the day. Or the fact that, no matter how many routines we try and put into place, my kids find getting their lunch boxes out of their bags when we walk through the door at the end of the day impossible to remember to do. Or maybe it’s just the stress of getting out of the house in the morning that my psyche sub consciously links to the dreaded lunchbox.


Whatever it is, the school holidays to me is not just a fortnight to spend some well deserved rest time with my kiddies. It is not just a time to sit on my front verandah and finish a WHOLE cup of tea. It is a time of No School Lunches…...bliss!


So step away from the normal stuff….Think deep….Besides the cliches, what is it that you really love about holidays?