Back in 1999 my daughters started reception class at the local
primary school. At almost five years of age, they were desperate to start
school and back then the mere thought of year thirteen seemed light years away.Today, heralds their last full day at school after fourteen years. Apart from popping in for exams, it’s over…
How’s a mum supposed to feel about that I wonder? Well for starters, it’s making me feel a whole lot older. The revelation that you have children of school age makes you sound relatively youthful to complete strangers. Soon, I’ll have to say that I have two daughters at university and that makes me sound much more grown-up!
School days for my daughters have been good on the whole. They have accumulated a fantastic bunch of friends, always worked incredibly hard and been taught by some truly inspired teachers.
But now, it’s onwards and upwards as they look forward to new-found freedom at universities a mere eight hours away from each other (grades permitting). Yep, life is about to take a different direction for us as a family – a new learning curve to negotiate and get used to.
What am I going to do with all that free-time? I’ll have to get back to you on that one. All I’ll say is that I hope to rediscover the old me, the one before I was overwhelmed by my daughters. Who knows where that woman is right now – she has been buried for a very long time!!
I have been thinking about some facts and figures to do with my daughters’ days at school and this is what I’ve come up with; they’re really quite scary -
·
Sandwich boxes x two, every day for
fourteen years: Approximately 5000!!
·
Approximately 50% of the high school
runs (shared with another long-suffering mum): 1300 each. Luckily we lived
close enough to primary school to be able to walk.
·
Number of school reports: 84 - I still
have every single one and some of them make very interesting reading!
·
Heated discussions over homework,
whereabouts of belongings, uniform and getting out of bed in the morning – I
honestly have no idea?! Guessing this is up into the hundreds though.
·
Parents’ evenings attended: 42 (Often
on my own, as hubby at work).
·
Number of times I’ve left for work
without at least one daughter because she wasn’t ready: Somewhere around 12.
·
Extracurricular activities pursued
over the years – Lost count!! Japanese, ballet and rowing were the ones that
stood the test of time though.
I have just one question – how did
this time disappear so quickly? My advice to all mums (and dads) of little ones
– enjoy your offspring for as long as possible – blink and they’ll be off to
university too.
Copyright © 2013 Izzie Anderton
