Survey highlights flexibility penalty for mums
Despite the post-Covid move to more flexible working, many mums are struggling to get the...read more
ARRRG. The holidays are coming and there is no time left to finish all the things that need to be finished. School breaks up next Friday and we are limping towards it. Everyone is exhausted from a combination of sweltering summer nights, football, Love Island and worry about a no deal scenario and being shackled to Donald Trump’s America. Daughter two came home wearing just the one shoe. The other one had completely come apart. On the other hand, daughter three is starting a new school in the final four days of term. That means she needs a uniform which could be expensive.
I’ve spent the last week ringing up schools in the area to find if they have places. In most cases they didn’t or you had to be religious to get in. We struck gold this week though and daughter three is looking forward to being back with people her own age after months at home with her mother, even if she thought she was going to get a long summer holiday first.
Meanwhile, everyone is starving because all the delivery slots have been booked up months in advance due to the football and there is no time to do the weekly shop. Only son’s front tooth is about to come out; daughter two has had detention; daughter one is trying to sort out the year ahead and think about where to apply to university; and my partner continues to suffer from tendonitis. Meanwhile, we have family visiting and there are sports days and UN days [daughter two needs to dress as a “Brazilian businesswoman”] and no school uniform days and the like to contend with. The calendar – I still use a hard one on the wall – has so much stuff on it it is illegible.
We’re off on holiday next weekend, which is very exciting, but it’s all come round a bit too soon. There is loads to do at work even before all the extra work needed to cover for the two weeks we are going to be away and it’s time to do boring stuff like taxes. Do I work round the clock and spend the holidays sleeping it off, take some work with me or postpone all things that are not flashing urgent till I get back and face them and the email inundation all at the same time?
In the mean time, the kittens are either enviably slumbering over various pieces of furniture or swinging from the curtains, living the life of Riley.
*Mum on the run is Mandy Garner, editor of Workingmums.co.uk.