As I get ready to send Logan and Aria back to school. Into years 5 and 3 respectively. It occurs to me I only have one year left of Bo at home. One year to spend with him until I lose him to the world of school. When by the time I see him most days, for the first year at least, he’ll be shattered and the best quality time we’ll have is at the weekends. I also know having done it with my two oldest children just how fast that time is going to go.
The time you have with your children before they start school is an exhausting and wonderful time. It’s a time when they’re mainly yours, tucked up in a safe cocoon with you and your family, assuming of course they don’t go to full-time nursery, or in our case a few days of pre-school mixed in. But for me, who works from home around my children, it’s a time when they are in mainly in my care, I know when they eat, sleep, poop, who they play with and if they’re happy or sad.
When they go to school, everything changes. You have to let them go and all those things you do for them. You don’t know the minutiae of their day anymore and it’s a wrench at first. But this last year before they go to school is precious. It’s time to spend time with together, take them on mini adventures without the busyness of the holidays, to enjoy the sweet lovely innocence before the influence of school. To enjoy those extra cuddles while you can.
But on the other side, I have been at home with the children, working for myself flexibly around them, or being a Mum at home, or working part-time around them for eleven years. And I am kind of ready for this part of my life to be over. Time to focus on my personal goals and career. I love being a Mum, I have loved this time, but am also ready for the next phase. But I do know I will be making sure to enjoy the most of this year before things change forever. Before all of my children are at school.