When plans no longer revolve around school holiday times

How quickly we forget. Everything revolves around school holidays when you have school-aged children, but as soon as you’re free from the term-time strictures your year has no common boundaries with the school-gate set. Unless you are a teacher, obvs.

It starts with the smugness of realising you no longer have to plan family holidays in the most expensive and busiest weeks.

After all those years through from nursery school to high school of measuring out the year in blocks of term times, you like to think you will now have the opportunity – and means – to take off on a whim.

In reality, it means there will be weeks when you are driving to work and you notice the roads are eerily quiet. If you are me, you will immediately assume there’s been some kind of nuclear apocalypse and that if you were listening to the serious station on the car radio, someone would have informed you so.

As you fiddle with the radio stations, you may then wonder why all the cars in the world have descended on your local shopping area. What are they all doing here on a weekday? Why is no one at work? Why is no one at school? Then the penny drops. Half term.

Now that The Student is no longer bound by the school dates, I also find myself drawing a complete blank when someone with schoolage children asks what you are doing in half term.

I then feel slightly aggrieved that I have nothing planned because I didn’t realise it was a thing.

I also find myself doing that thing that used to drive me bonkers when I was at school: “Half term, already? Surely they just went back after the holidays? They have the life of Riley these kids.” Infuriating.

On the plus side, it comes as a lovely surprise when I realise the dreaded exercise class I subject myself to once a week is mysteriously cancelled. On further investigation, it turns out it’s because of half term.

Hurrah for school holidays!