As you can tell, we have just finished and survived another round of school holidays. Among kiwi taming and hobbit searching, public school children in New Zealand operate on four terms during the year, with two weeks of holidays separating the terms. Of course, Term 4 ends with a six-week holiday covering the end of the year and Christmas, but we are way ahead of ourselves!
Term 4 started today, with UMC1 and UMC2 having mixed feelings about it; I sense much conflict in them. They wanted to see their friends again, but you can’t beat the school holidays! Well, from their perspective, you can’t.
So, how did the school holidays go? I have to be honest with you, we went into the holidays dealing with Indy’s death, so my wife and I put in extra effort to make these holidays fun for UMC1 and UMC2, but manageable for us. And when I say manageable, I mean our ability to survive the threats without starting divorce proceedings.
Without any more time-wasting, let’s discuss the threats we faced and see if you can relate to any of them.
Lego Invasion
This threat is an old one, but it’s still serious. UMC1 and UMC2 love working and playing around the house with Lego, but during the school holidays, this obsession gets taken to the next level.
Every room in the house, except for the bathroom, was invaded by their Lego, whether they were figures, vehicles, or everything in between. They even covered the window frame of the back door with newly designed Lego droids, so every time you opened or closed the door, droids and tears would fall.
The dining room table was the scene of multiple Lego construction sites throughout the holidays. These included on the table, under the table, on three different chairs, and the foot railings. Apparently, Lex Luthor, Boba Fett and Foot Clan Ninjas like to loiter under the table.
It’s also a hell of a thing to consistently find Lego that does not belong to you on your bed, then to be lectured about moving things that don’t belong to you.
As for the base plates, the boys created several buildings that stayed in the lounge. This meant every morning, the base plates were taken off the table and placed back onto the floor, then moved to the table again at night time, so just it could start again the next day.
Using the vacuum cleaner was a nightmare because every scrap of carpet needed to be checked for Lego, which proved to be problematic. I was also delightfully reminded of the dangers of walking shoeless in the house during the school holidays, because of the amount of Lego impaling my feet.
Pyjama Days
I don’t mind pyjamas at all, but during the school holidays, my children practically live in them. There have been numerous battles over the idea of UMC1 and UMC2 wanting to go out in their pyjamas, despite logical and reasonable arguments against it, assuming they even want to leave the house in the first place.
Their philosophy was that since it was their school holidays, they should be able to choose their clothes, meaning they were choosing to remain in their pyjamas for the whole day.
I can’t tell you the number of times I called my wife to see how things were going, just to be told that the boys were still in their pyjamas; but they were going to get changed because they were all going out. Fast forward to me seeing them in the car when they had picked me up, or when I got home, they were still in their pyjamas. I would ask about it, but my wife would just shake her head and admit defeat.
It was also funny and tragic explaining to them, that yes, it’s time to have a shower, so they needed to remove the pyjamas so they could be washed.
And yes, they could choose another pair to wear afterwards. I have no idea how many times I’ve said pyjamas over the last two weeks, but it would have been more times than The Brain has tried to take over the world.
Star Wars: Rebels
This one was not a threat, but it was weird. We had previously mentioned to UMC1 and UMC2 that they could watch Star Wars: Rebels, during the school holiday this year. Everybody had forgotten in the past holidays, so the boys were not going to miss out this time.
This involved the boys asking for Star Wars: Rebels, before and after breakfast, before and after lunch, before and after dinner, and every other time in between. Because of this, it gave my wife and me some leverage for the boys to do things, like removing pyjamas, leaving the house, buying the groceries, having showers, or tidying up, which were the prices the boys had to pay to watch the show.
A lot of negotiations occurred during the last two weeks, with Star Wars: Rebels acting as the dangling carrot to the boys. And when they did get to see it, they were fixated on it, to the point they were quiet and absorbing it all.
After watching a collection of episodes, UMC2 would also retell the plot to you, completely forgetting that you were sitting next to him throughout the show. Their role-playing started to centre on Star Wars: Rebels, which resulted in many over-enthusiastic lightsabre battles.
I have rediscovered my appreciation for sleep-ins over being woken up at 5.30 am, because UMC1 and UMC2 are recreating lightsabre battles in our bedroom. Not cool guys, not cool.
We made it through the two weeks of school holidays thanks to various forms of caffeine. Now we have about 10 weeks to recover before the six weeks of the Christmas/Summer holidays begin. During this time, I have two weeks off, so I will need plenty of energy drinks to keep up with UMC1 and UMC2. Good times!
If you have school-aged children, how to manage and survive the school holidays? As always, please let me know. Ok, that’s another rant for another week.
Thanks for reading, following, and subscribing to Some Geek Told Me. Please remember to walk your dog, read a banned book, watch The Wild Robot, and I’ll see you next week when we travel back to 1954. Cool bananas!
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