I am devastated my middle boy is starting Prep even though I pretend it’s the most exciting adventure our family has ever embarked upon. I really want to cry and beg him to watch Play School with me forever. So as my emotions run amok at the thought of my son starting school, I am equally as overwhelmed by the morning hell that is about to be unleashed.
You accuse me of being melodramatic? Well let me tell you, mornings in our house are bedlam. No matter how much I prep the night before and make lunches, pack bags, find hats, write love notes to sneak in my kids’ lunch (yes, I really do), find socks, locate missing library books and do about a dozen other jobs, the mornings just seem to explode, and I explode with stress.
As I am trying to herd my wild kids out the door, they decide it’s the perfect time to upend the box of Lego or play a game of hide and seek. Term one is here. How are we going to actually be dressed and out the door by 7.30am? For the last month we have actually slowed down and achieved our humble goals of eating peanut butter smothered on toast in bed most mornings, before we eventually move with sloth-like speed and crawl to the beach or our local river to just chill.
Chill is a word my children are not familiar with, as we go hard and fast during the term with way too much on all our plates, but chill has been exactly what we needed to bond and breath. It’s been a beautiful break filled with vitamin ‘sea’ and lazy days in paradise. The kids have played in their bedrooms. They have grown in height like wild desert weeds and I have just grown in width. We have seen friends we neglect all year long. And I have eaten my body weight in mangoes and hot chips.
Don’t get me wrong, there have been days my kids have fought like cats and dogs, but I would take having them on holidays and close to me every time.
I am processing these thoughts at the same time as bingeing on Netflix’s The Crown. The late sister of Queen Elizabeth 11 knew how to brunch before smashed avocado and lattes became fashionable. Recent publications about Margaret state the princess would wake about 9am and spend the next two hours there reading and drinking and chain smoking, before having a one-hour bubble bath.
If I had zero responsibilities and endless money, I think this is how I would really like to spend my mornings (minus the chain smoking). Good old party gal Mags would then spend quite a time doing her hair and makeup and getting dressed before whirling downstairs in the palace to have a ‘vodka pick-me-up’ at midday and then a long lunch with the Queen Mother. Her afternoons and nights were filled with horse riding, parties and visiting celebrities.
I salute you Princess Mags and will be simultaneously cursing you next week when the school run belts me hard and fast.
Sami Muirhead is a radio announcer, blogger and commentator. For more from Sami tune into Mix FM.
