The Summer holidays are almost upon us. It’s going to be an odd season, for so many reasons.
And for parents and carers of school-age children, it’s going to be tough. There will likely be no home-schooling, no schooling, no childcare facilities, no Summer schools. Children at home all day every day.
I’m not a parent or carer, but I empathise with you if you are. You are likely already tired from juggling multiple balls in the air. And now the Summer holidays are looming. With children at home all day every day and no focus to their days (perhaps they didn’t have much focus during lock-down, but this will be even less).
I hear that some workplaces are getting antsy that parents and carers are not yet “back to normal” with their working patterns and output. Just because (some) children are back at school for a couple of weeks (in England at least), that does not equate to normal. Their days are shorter or fewer in number. There is no-one other than their parents or carers to get them ready for school, pick them up or take care of them in the non-school hours. There are no after-schools clubs. May I respectfully suggest that managers try a bit of empathy themselves. This is NOT NORMAL. We are nowhere near “back to normal” yet (and hopefully never will be).
So what is your Summer-time strategy?
What conversations have you had with your boss about what you can and cannot do whilst your child is at home needing entertainment? What conversations have you had with clients (if you work with clients directly) to manage their expectations? What time have you booked off? Who can you call on for help?
How can you keep yourself sane through all of this too? How will you and your partner tag-team so that you each get time for yourselves as well as time to work and time to play with your children? If you are a single parent or carer, who can you call on to be your tag-team? This is not the time to shy away from asking for help! You are tired already, so adding children at home all day every day into the mix is going to need a different strategy to the one you had while they were home-schooling.
Then there’s the transition back to school in September (or August in Scotland). The kids will hopefully be elated to see their friends, so it may not be too much of a bumpy ride. But every transition needs a good ending to make space for a great new beginning. What are your plans for that? It may seem like a long time away, but like our 100 days in lock-down, it’ll pass by in a flash.
