Trials of a working Mum – Kids holiday panic stations
My lovely son, ready for the Carnival this year. What are we going to do with him next week?
My son is three and last September started school in the Spanish state system on the Costa del Sol. Before then we’d had him in nursery, which hardly ever closed, so this is the first year for us dealing with the dreaded school holidays. I can’t believe how many there are! We have already had Christmas and Semana Blanca, a week of holidays that the teachers take in the province of Malaga (no one can seem to tell why).
Next week is the Easter holidays, a whole week off school, and my partner and I are dividing up the time and working out who will have our son when and what we can do with him to fit around work. Luckily for us we have some good friends who have offered to have him on Monday morning, so that’s a part of one day sorted, but what about the rest? And this is only 1 week, in the summer they get 3 months off! How do working Mums in Spain cope?
My current plan is to get up as early as I can and leave our son sleeping late and then let him have a quiet morning, when he normally moves slowly and is relaxed, so I can at least get 3 hours in the morning. After that I think I am going to have to stop work for a bit, take him to run around at the park or on the beach to tire him out as much as possible and then gain myself a few more hours in the afternoon, worst comes to the worst I can always work when I put him to bed, but I am not keen on that.
Thankfully, we thought ahead when we refurbished our house and have his playroom adjoining the office of our marketing agency with a window between the two, so we can check out what he’s doing and he can actually be pretty happy playing in there on his own for a few hours each day. Then I need to arrange some playdates as quickly as possible so he gets some company with kids and doesn’t get bored to death of us!
I would love to hear other suggestions from business owners where both parents work in the business and there’s no family around, I will need some inspiration! This is when the expat life without Grandparents near by can really start to be tricky. Wish me luck!