It’s September 6th. My children should have just completed their first week of Kindergarten (well not really due to a ridiculous gradual entry program – but that’s a rant for another day), Grade 3 and Grade 5.
But they are still home.
Why, you ask? BC is in the midst of a Province wide Teacher’s strike. Again.
It’s a long and complicated story that I won’t get into right now. Suffice it to say they have legitimate beefs with the Provincial Government and I fully support them in their fight for smaller classes, more help in those classes for the myriad of students with developmental, learning and language disorders (both diagnosed and UNdiagnosed!) and a well earned wage increase. Teaching is a job that is not for the faint of heart or short of temper (namely, me!!) I applaud anyone who chooses it as a profession. My mother was a teacher. Both her sisters were teachers. I have 3 sisters-in-law who are teachers and countless friends too. They are ALL awesome and deserve better working conditions, better support both at the school level and the legislative level. I want them to stand strong. Fight the good fight. Show “The Man” (or in this case The Woman – our Premier Christy Clark) that they’re not going to take it any longer!
At least, that is what my brain is saying.
My heart and my “OMG my kids are driving me nuts” part of me is yelling at them to get back to work so I can send my kids back to school!
I have a part time job at a retail store working evening and weekend shifts to accommodate our family value of having me at home with our children while they are small. But I am tired of days that start at 6AM and end at 11PM. I’m tired of getting maybe one or two family meals a week. I’m tired of kissing Greg in the driveway as he comes home and I leave to go to work. I’m tired of missing ballet class viewings, soccer practices, soccer games, basketball games, swimming lessons and home reading. I’m tired of getting barely an hour of “quality time” with my husband at night before we fall exhausted into bed to do it all again the next day. And the next.
Repeat.
This September was supposed to signal the beginning of the end of all that. Once the ridiculously long gradual entry program that is so completely unnecessary … sorry, got off on a tangent there … Once my 5 year old was at school all day, I was scheduled to switch to day shifts. You know, 9AM – 2PM kind of shifts. The kind that allow me to send my kids off to school with hugs from Mom and then pick them up at the end of the day with more hugs from Mom. The kind that allow me to not only cook healthy, yummy meals but also BE there to eat them with the family. The kind of shifts that allow me to share the after school activity taxi service that most parents run these days. The kind of shifts that allow Greg and I to (gasp) catch up on each other’s days as we chill on the couch once all the kids are put to bed!!
Radical, right?
But all of that glorious domesticity is on hold until our wonderful, well deserving teachers work things out with our perpetually onerous Government Know-It-Alls.
Until then, this is my new reality.
Home schooling?! Never thought I’d be doing this!
If you need me I’ll be the one hiding in my Craft Cave playing Candy Crush and/or laying on the floor in a fetal position waiting for the melt downs over the latest writing assignment in their work books to die down. Send help! Preferably in the form of wine or coffee. Either will work at this point!!
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