On realising that the best aphrodisiac for parents costs absolutely nothing
Instead it’s actually something that's totally free - but also something we all take for granted
Well hello here we go, nearly at the end of August, within touching distance of September which means autumn (ok, fall, whatever you want to call it) is nearly here and that means we’re in the run up to Halloween and YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THAT DON’T YOU?
Yeah. That. Christmas.
But before I start getting excited about candy-coloured lights and wool clothes, there are still another two weeks of the summer holiday to plough through. Look, I’m not saying I am counting down the days until the kids go back to school, but they’ve been off since close to the the beginning of June and we’re now almost at September, so that’s an entire season of 24/7 activities, snacks, meals, fights, discarded Lego to torture my bare feet on, pints and pints of mosquito repellent used, endless wet towels to deal with, and literally days and days spent in the car driving them around. In about mid July, I worked out that I’d spent 45 hours of the previous two weeks in the car, driving Lester and Evangeline backwards and forwards between Washington DC and Baltimore (ahhhh Baltimore, my heart) for a daily riding camp.
FORTY FIVE HOURS!
That’s an entire working week I spent, in the car, on the freeway listening to Eminem and Taylor Swift on shuffle, with all those hours eaten up before I had actually, you know, done anything, like cooked a meal, hung up a load of washing or completed any actual, real work. I spent 45 hours driving before I’d even typed up a single word, considered a single upcoming podcast guest, or, in fact, had a single sane and serious thought relating to anything other than being a mom.
Navigating my way through these long holidays as a British mum has been quite the trip, I can tell you. I’ve learn a lot. Sworn a lot too. Scrolled a lottttttttttt. Also, as regular readers of me will know, I’m devoted, for ethical, spiritual, political, reasons, to the state school system, which means, back in normal life in England, my kids only ever had 6 weeks off school, max, which is PLENTY.
Also, in England we lived deep in the beautiful, mystical countryside (you can read all about it in The Giant on the Skyline), which meant at least 4 of those 6 weeks could be spent with the kids kicking around the garden or moping around the field beside our house, swearing at how bitterly bored they where. It was great for them! And it meant I could get on to do really important things, like sit in the kitchen chatting to my best friend and scrolling Instagram.
Now that I am living the life of an American city mom, navigating the summer holidays has been much harder. They’ve done camps, they’ve been to the pool, we went away and had (a life-changing, horizon-expanding) holiday, but that still left about 9 weeks in which I’ve had to entertain them in some ways.
I’ve learnt a few things about being a mom during this time, but weirdly, the experience of having to work out how to entertain my kids has also reminded me about this, something extremely pertinent about my marriage, and what this most important relationship in my life needs a lot of, in order to thrive, not just survive (sorry Meghan Markle.)