If my kids are happy ... so am I
YESTERDAY morning we got a message telling us the two days a week our two girls, aged seven and five, would be in school come August and the start of the new term.
It was confirmation of what we had dreaded, a return to school part-time, leaving us to struggle on the majority of the week with kids at home while working and trying to homeschool. It was, we thought, just the way it was going to be and there was even talk among friends that this could be the new normal until the end of the year.
Then came the tears as we broke it to our eldest, who realised she wouldn’t be starting primary four with her little friends who had been allocated opposite days. The tears kept coming as she tried to get her head around a very different world yet again. I struggled to keep my emotions in check too as she broke her heart.
They are both resilient wee things but this last few months I have worried for their emotional wellbeing more than ever before. My five-year-old asks me daily if I’ll be with her when they go back to school. Their worlds have been upended and they are a bit frightened by it all despite our best efforts.
Then, just a couple of hours later, came the U-turn from John Swinney. It was a bolt from the blue, I just assumed, from everything I’ve read and heard that it wouldn’t be happening. That blended learning was Plan A. The numerous messages from our school about the plans wouldn’t have made me think that back to school properly was even an option.
If it does happen because it is safe to do so, and it has to be as safe as possible, there will be two very happy girls skipping back through the school gates.
And one overjoyed mum kissing them goodbye.