Exams - a testing time for everybody!

One of the main reasons I wanted to be my own boss was because I knew I wanted to always be around for my children.
 As the children grew older the time I had available for working became longer. At first my working day fitted around nursery school times and whatever I was fit for once the children were in bed. As they progressed through primary and secondary school my working day increased. A great advantage of being my own boss is being able to have free time in school holidays. Over the years, as my children have become older and more independent, I have been in a position of being able to devote more time to Musical Minis and have allowed the business to grow. However, for the last six years my working life has been disrupted with the children's exams. This is something that hadn't even occurred to me would cause me any problems. My children are two academic years apart in age - something again that I hadn't realised would be a problem.
Six years ago, Matthew, my eldest has his GCSE's, then a year later was his AS levels. These years were relatively easy ones as it was just him taking exams. He was on study leave which meant my day was disrupted. Keeping in line with my wish to be around for my children, I wanted to make sure that I was available to test him when he wanted me to and make sure he was encouraged to work as well as have timed breaks. Often on his breaks we would go for a walk to buy something for tea and energise him to work again. Occasionally, we would go out, loaded with his revision notes, for lunch. Apparently, the thought of being tested over lunch in a restaurant resulted in a productive mornings work for him. In subsequent years this is also proved very popular with my other two.
The most problematic part of the exams, for me, is the fact that there are so many parts to each exam and they are over so quickly. I have always made sure I'm available to take and collect the children to and from each exam. This often means I'm stuck around school for an hour or an hour and a half. It's not long enough to go back to work. I know that I have contributed to some of my problems myself. The boys, once they had passed their driving tests, would have happily driven to school for their exams. I wasn't happy with this. I had heard of children having car accidents driving to school as they were stressed and I felt much happier knowing they had arrived safely.
Four years ago the real fun started when I had Matthew doing his A-Levels and Alex doing GCSE's. My life was a constant journey to and from school with one or other of the boys. As a parent it was a really stressful time - encouraging the boys to work, making sure they were at school at the correct time etc.
Last year I had the same problem with Alex doing his A -Levels and Emily her GCSE's. Emily works extremely hard so I had to encourage her to stop work, whilst suggesting that Alex starts! Two years ago it was just Alex doing his AS Levels and I have the same this year with Emily. This year Emily just has seven exams which seems really easy after the 35 I had to work around last year with her and Alex. Emily still needs reminding that she has worked for too long and needs to move around or stop for lunch etc. So far this year I've been called upon to test her on Cicero and Luther. The testing that really finished me off was Matthew’s Latin translations - I found the English so boring and he thought it was so wonderful!
Exam time is obviously a period of great stress for the children. Matthew is doing his finals at University in the next few weeks. His phone calls home have become more frequent and as parents we want to be around to talk to him whenever he wants to speak to us. Thankfully we don't have to test him anymore - even with his notes I'm sure I'd be useless.
As a working mum exam times are a stressful period for me too. I still want to be around for Emily, as I will make sure I am next year for her A Levels. I also have responsibilities to my franchisees and have to make sure I'm available whenever they need me. I have to prioritise - this week there's a EWIF, Encouraging Women Into Franchising, meeting I really wanted to attend. However, Emily has to be in school at 1.30pm that day and I wouldn't be home to take her and to me she has to come first. Next year, when Emily will be doing her A Levels, it will be my last year of being an exam mum. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Six years ago I had no idea that the exams would have such an effect on my time. I know children are under great pressure from exams but come the end of June I'm sure lots of parents will be very relieved they're over for another year too!