The last days of summer

It’s that time of year where you suddenly realise your child has grown exponentially since the summer term and nothing fits them and all the shops have run out of their school uniform colours. Having been fairly smug at the start of the summer holidays, thinking only son didn’t need anything at all, he has shot up and is now taller than me and his feet are two sizes larger. Plus I don’t think the ropey PE socks can last another year even with extensive darning.

I’ve also been advising my brother on school uniforms as he is back from 16 years abroad in a country that doesn’t do school uniforms and his son is going to have to adapt. I’ve been trying to teach him how to tie a tie. The good news is I knew exactly where to direct my brother for cut price, second-hand stuff. I’m not sure what my nephew is going to make of a huge new school with people effectively in suits [the children]. It’s quite a lot to adapt to – a new school in a different language, new ways of doing things, lots more people [he was in a very small town before]…but being able to adapt to change is basically the main skill young people will be needing for the future. I don’t think I’ve really mastered it much yet, even though there has already been a lot of change to cope with over the last decades. I’d just like to sit in a darkened room occasionally and not have to learn a new system or social media site.

Only son has spent much of the holiday reading [success!], cooking and honing his brilliant guitar skills [I have no idea how he does it]. He’s also branching out into keyboards, via Youtube. He could soon be his own one man band. I could scarcely believe it when he brought A Christmas Carol on holiday with us and actually read it. All those years of droning on about the joys of reading may have got through…or maybe he just wanted to be ahead of the class. But he has also been seen carrying a big fat novel around with him everywhere he goes. I’m not sure how far through it he is, but perhaps it is a sign of the absolute boredom of summer that he has succumbed to books.

Meanwhile, on the culinary front he is excelling. Yesterday it was lemon biscuits to welcome his sister home as she was having a hard time and needed some TLC. He is a very devoted brother and just an all-round lovely person. This weekend we are planning to find a wave machine. We’ve heard there is a pool around an hour away. The last couple of weeks of summer is about trying to make the most of it before the September onslaught. I can’t remember if it was always that way. I know it can be really hard for many parents, particularly of smaller children and if you have no money. What will the next year bring? Whatever it is, the work life helterskelter is about to begin again soon.

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