Here comes the summer....

There's a song in my head that won't go away. 

'School's out for Summer.... School's out forever'....

It's funny when a song binds itself to your brain and stays there - giving you a soundtrack to the same thing that's happening in your life.

Until it starts to drive you a little bit crazy.

My kids have just finished school/playschool for the summer which has led to an end of term holiday-feeling in our house. 

For parents, this is often coupled with relief at not having to churn out healthy, nutritious daily lunchboxes for 9 weeks; not having to watch a clock for school runs and not having to ensure the uniform is clean and easily-findable in the morning.

So sing it with me, in celebration: 'School's out for Summer'.... 'School's out forever'....

[I actually don't really like the song, it's a bit too heavy-rock for my easy-listening ears, but I love the chorus, and I remember it being a bit of an anthem when I was growing up because Toyah did a cover version around 1985. Toyah was so cool.]

My husband will read this and say: "But you're working, how does this affect you?"

And he'd be correct, because my hours during the day are spent toiling for money to pay the mortgage whilst he is now the primary carer. 

But I am affected by school holidays, because I yearn for those sepia-coloured long summer days of my youth; I yearn to give my children wistful holiday memories of beaches and camping like mine; and I yearn to spend more time with them outdoors in the sunshine. 

And I yearn to be cheerful when they're around, not grumpy and annoyed by their loudness.

But I must work. It's the choice we made when we switched roles, the hubby and me. 

Thankfully I still get to see glimpses of my kids' lives - because evenings are longer - and weekends have become a revelation in cluster-stuffing as much into them as possible. 

On Saturday, we took them on an open-top tourist bus tour in our local city of Cork - which turned out to be a lovely way to spend the afternoon. I don't think any of my 3 kids had ever been on a bus before, let alone a topless one with an upper deck. 

We pulled leaves from the trees overhead, we peered over at the people we towered over on pavements and we pointed at funny things over the tops of houses. Who would have thought that such a simple thing aimed at tourists could produce so much pleasure?

It finally feels like the start of summer. It hasn't rained in a week and we've been wearing shorts. The kids are outside on bikes and we're planning to go on holiday to Wales in a few weeks. Life in the sunshine seems so much brighter and fuller.

I just hope I don't jinx the lovely weather by pointing out how unseasonally dry it's been.

And I hope I can get the chorus of 'Schools out for summer' out of my head soon because it's starting to get really annoying.


{apologies if you're in the UK and you still have another month of school runs!}

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