The uniforms are back on, the lunchboxes have been dragged out of the cupboard and, after weeks of hearing “I’m bored”, “What are we doing today?” and “Is there anything to eat?”, the school gates are open again. We love the summer holidays, but we also know there were a few parents around Bailieborough who were more than ready to wave goodbye at the school gate this week. If you managed to get everyone up, dressed, fed and out the door with the correct schoolbag, two matching shoes and at least some of the things they were supposed to bring, take the win. Now, when did you last sit down and drink an entire cup of coffee while it was actually hot?
At the Bailie Hotel, back-to-school week always brings a change in the daily routine. During the summer, families are constantly on the go. There are days out to organise, children to entertain, relatives visiting, holidays, camps, matches and the never-ending challenge of filling another rainy afternoon. Then school starts and suddenly the mornings belong to a timetable again. For parents, of course, “back to school” doesn’t necessarily mean putting the feet up for six hours. We know better than that. There’s work to get to, shopping to do, appointments that have been put off, a house that somehow looks as though it hosted a festival for most of August and a laundry basket containing approximately 400 towels. But it might mean finally getting the chance to take five.
Call into the Bailie after the school run, order a coffee and sit down for a while. Better still, text the friend you’ve been saying you’ll meet “when things settle down” and actually arrange it. We hear that one all the time: “We must meet for coffee.” Then June becomes July, July disappears into August and the next thing you know you’re standing in a shop wondering how a child who fitted perfectly into their school trousers three months ago has apparently grown six inches. September is as good a time as any to finally have that catch-up.
One of the things we enjoy about this time of year at the Bailie is seeing familiar faces getting back into their routines. Friends meeting for coffee, someone popping in for a bite after getting a few jobs done in town, or parents having lunch together before the school collection starts looming. The conversations are often very familiar too. Who got the worst school-shoe bill? Whose child has already lost something? Who forgot about PE until five minutes before leaving the house? And how can a lunchbox come home completely untouched when the same child apparently needed feeding every twenty minutes throughout the summer? These are the great mysteries of parenthood.
The first couple of weeks back can be hectic. Everyone has to adjust, and getting children back to sensible bedtimes after the summer can be a challenge in itself. Mornings that were fairly relaxed a week ago suddenly involve watching the clock like you’re coordinating departures at Dublin Airport. Then the after-school activities kick off again. Training, dancing, swimming, music lessons, homework, matches and birthday parties all find their way back onto the calendar. Before long, the family schedule requires the organisational skills of an event manager, and somewhere in the middle of all that, everyone still needs dinner.
That’s another reason we’re big believers in taking the easier option occasionally. There’s no prize for making every meal from scratch seven days a week. Sometimes sitting down together and letting somebody else do the cooking is exactly what’s needed, particularly after one of those evenings when everyone seems to need to be in a different place at exactly the same time. A family meal out doesn’t need to be saved for a birthday or special occasion either. Sometimes getting everyone around a table, with no cooking and no washing-up waiting afterwards, is enough of an occasion in itself.
Parents can be very good at putting themselves at the bottom of the list. There’s always one more job that could be done, one more email to answer or one more load of washing waiting.
So, for what they’re worth, here are a few back-to-school rules we think are worth borrowing this September:
- Arrange the coffee. Don’t say “we must” and leave it at that. Pick the day and go.
- If you get an unexpected free half-hour, you are under no obligation to spend it cleaning something.
- A quiet lunch on your own is completely acceptable. In fact, we highly recommend it.
- Get the schoolbags and uniforms sorted the night before whenever possible. Your 8am self will be extremely grateful.
- Keep expectations realistic for the first few weeks. Children are tired, parents are tired and everyone is getting used to the routine again.
- If someone else offers to cook dinner, say yes.
- When you do get five minutes to yourself, try not to spend all five thinking about what you should be doing next.
Because the school day goes quickly. One minute you’re enjoying a bit of peace and the next you’re looking at the time wondering how it can possibly be nearly collection already. Then they’re back, the front door opens, the bags hit the floor and the questions begin. “What’s for dinner?” “Can I have something to eat?” “Where’s my football top?” And, occasionally, the sentence every parent loves to hear at 9pm: “I need something for school tomorrow.” Normal service has officially resumed.
For all the joking about the chaos, these busy years don’t last forever. The school runs, forgotten lunchboxes, lifts to training and last-minute requests will eventually become the things families look back on and laugh about. Maybe not the school-shoe bill. That one might still hurt. But while the children settle back into classrooms and everyone gets accustomed to alarms and timetables again, make a little room in the new routine for yourself too.
If that means a coffee after drop-off, come and have one with us at the Bailie Hotel. If it means meeting a friend for lunch and finally finishing the conversation you started sometime around the beginning of the summer, even better. And if it simply means sitting down for half an hour, having something nice to eat and enjoying the fact that nobody has asked you for a snack, a lift or the Wi-Fi password, we completely understand.
School’s back. You survived the summer. Take five. We’ll put the coffee on.