It’s so incredible to have a two week break from real life each winter. I always feel like I’m desperate for a break from work at this point, and I absolutely savor the time away from work and the daily grind.
But re-entry into real life is hard. I found myself really struggling yesterday to not fly into a full-flung panic. It doesn’t help that we have a PTA meeting AND a parents’ Night Out back-to-back at the end of the week. It also doesn’t help that it’s supposed to rain all week (our school lacks a lot of resources necessary for managing 700+ students in the rain – like a cafeteria (the kids eat outside normally) and protected walkways to all classrooms (many classrooms modular units or portables set away from the main campus, like mine).
But Monday is a professional development day, which means we don’t have students yet, and for that I am SO, SO THANKFUL. Last year there were teachers from another district who got the day after break for professional development watching me teach, which meant I had to do all sorts of energy-intensive teaching when instead I wanted to do something very low key. That was really challenging. This year is the exact opposite, and I can spend today dipping my toes into re-entry instead of jumping into the frigid waters of reality.
I rallied at the end of the last week and graded a bunch of papers and took the kids to work so I could make copies, so I’m actually in a way better place than I expected to be at this point. My plan is to take the week really slow, and let the kids have the time and space to re-accustomed to reality that I recognize I need.
My own kids really struggled yesterday. My dad helped me install the hitch they got us for Christmas onto our car, so we got home later than I anticipated from picking them up. The afternoon was peppered with melt-downs and tantrums. The good news is they were really tired and ready for bed at 7pm (at least my son was).
I slept in way too much this break, so I was not tired at 7pm. At least not the right kind of tired.
We tried to do a lot to get ready for this morning. We put out all their clothes, and their rain gear. We had the non-perishable parts of the week’s lunches ready. We even had their water bottles filled and in the fridge. I find that the first morning back is hard, but not as bad as the second morning, so I hope we get everything ready again tonight.
I spent hours and hours tidying the house on Friday so the cleaning lady could have unfettered access to the floors and counter tops. The place looks amazing right now, and I want so badly to maintain a certain level of neatness now that the Christmas tree is down and the holiday box is put away. I hope to institute 10 minutes of family clean-up every night. I know we can do this if I just remember; I need to make it a habit, but I struggle so much in the first weeks to insert it into our schedule. Hopefully with my husband’s help we can manage it this time. It’s a new year and the house is clean. Let’s run with this, let’s keep it going.
How has re-entry been for you?
I hear you. I’m not a teacher, but I’m fortunate to have enough leave to take off the whole 2 1/2 weeks that my kids are out of school. We’ve been sleeping in til like 730 which has been glorious. It’s going to be rough on Wednesday.
And as usual, I had a grand delusions of all the things I was going to get done around the house while we were off. Ha ha…
Prepping for the morning always helps but can be hard to do. Maybe a chart for each child’s to-dos and a list for yours? Then rewards for getting it done without fussing? Not daily but once every 7 days… .
Use a big timer for the 10 mins; then celebrate what got done.
I hope you get a tiny bit of you time most evenings… that the children develop tiny bits more independence at bedtime (I have not been eating special mushrooms but I still hope for such development.)
I always think the holiday winter break is a weird fake period of unreality … and I have been out of school timelines for decades now. Odd how common that hibernation from reality desire works.
Holding the best wishes for you and this week!
As an unemployed/semi-retired person I don’t really have re-entry issues, but all I can say that if your house is clean, you should consider that to be a major victory! I am in awe.