While I lament the coming of September for it means an end to summer break, I also long for the days of heading off to university/college/trade school and all of the excitement associated with it. I hope my children enjoy their days at school as much as I did. Since I am not starting a new job, or heading back to the classroom I merely need to adjust my schedule to waking up to get my kids to school each morning. I took the summer break to sleep in until about 8:55 am each day, because I don’t necessarily feel the need to be available before 9:00 am for work, unless it’s an extreme case in which I feel obligated to do so. So I took the ten weeks available this summer to sleep in, because we all know the kids stayed up later than they should have because it was summer time. Now I have under ten days to get back to being up by 7:20 am, which isn’t as hard of a shift for me as it once was. My kids don’t seem to be struggling to wake up — yet. They’ll make a meal of waking up once the responsibility of the school day makes its presence known. The real trick is getting them to gear down and be in bed by 9:00 pm. Luckily the sun sets earlier and earlier, and those hyper physical extra curriculars will kick in shortly!
Both kids were awake before eight, so that’s a good sign. A few more days of getting them up and at’em by seven will make the school mornings of six thirty, six forty five that much easier. At least initially. I’m sure the coughs, head aches, tummy aches and more will begin almost immediately. Ten weeks illness free and that’ll evaporate near instantaneously, I’d wager money on it!
Lucky for the kids out schooling here only goes from 8:30 am until 3:00 pm. I’m given to understand that schools across the world go far longer than that. In some instances I could see that being beneficial, most of the time it feels a tad harsh. It’s not my lived experience so I can’t really say. From the outside looking in a fourteen hour long school day seems… Excessive. But you cannot argue that there is a lack of education, nor public spending on education for the population. That’s for sure. Maybe the average work day for adults is similar so it helps keep the children out of mischief, and looked after while everybody works such long hours. Like I said, my knowledge comes from news articles, IG posts, and random news segments regarding tweens in school somewhere in China. My knowledge is anecdotal at best.
It’s been twenty years this September since I last walked into a post secondary education institution myself. It took a really long time for my FOMO to die off, and for me to not actively desire to return to school for a fourth time. I could try yet another career change I suppose, but I think where art/design is concerned the big brands will come back to artisanal works created by people to differentiate themselves from the cohesive gloss of current AI slop. It all has that HDR, no space left unfilled, word salad, hyper activity to it all. Premium companies want white space, breathing room, elegance, nuance, and to not feel like drop down menu chosen featured. For mom & pop places hoping to spend $8.00 on a poster it works great. Use AI, I can’t work for eight bucks. I think people would be happier to see a word doc with clip art right about now anyway. But I digress, we’re here to talk about coming off of summer hours and reentering the real world and regular business hours.
Good ole 9 to 5, just like the dearly departed Dolly used to sing about. Of course being a freelancer my time is more flexible, and I work those hours, plus evenings, weekends, and holidays because I’m not always busy with a 40 hour work week. Some times it’s twenty, and other weeks it’s a hundred. Evens out in the wash come tax time though, so it’s all good. I get to be around to drop my kids off at school, to pick them up, and some days even run them through town to evening activities. I get to walk the dog when weather permits, and I have the time to get groceries, clean, and maintain the house so it’s not what we spend our weekends on after work is done. Freelancing has many benefits, but a steadily working spouse is required. That can be a tough piece of the puzzle to find.
With any luck, and ten days to do so, I pray the transition back to school hours is both smooth & painless for all involved. A week this coming Tuesday and nearly all parents in Ontario will breathe a sigh of relief. Ha!
Bring on the purge of household junk immediately after that!
Greatwall Studios Graphic Design 