This is a hard time of year for me as a mom. The school supply shopping was easy as I bought all but one item here in Maidstone. We have a great selection locally and great prices so it doesn't make sense to fight the crowds in the cities. It is difficult because the real schedule juggling begins. We're busy all summer long and this summer was even busier than usual, but the school year and all the community events and activities make for a busy fall.
The earlier fading daylight and lack of any hot August nights tell me the season is changing, but I'm just not ready. My children have less than a week left before they start school again. I remember long summer holidays when I was young, but this year my children had less than two calendar months off. It wouldn't be so bad if everyone in the province followed the same timetable, but as I surveyed the students and teachers in my family I found a big range of start dates.
I remember how ridiculous we thought it was when we had to go back to school for two or three days and then get the Labour Day weekend off when I was a student. This year my little ones will have a full week plus two days before the long weekend going back to school almost a week before my niece in Saskatoon returns to the classroom.
It wouldn't be so bad if family members lived far away and had completely different school years, but it doesn't make sense to me to have such diverse schedules in the same province. We like to plan family events and weekends away but it is really difficult to find common days off and so much of our life is dictated by the school year. I realize the school boards have the freedom to create their own calendars with input from their staff, but in our society where families don't always live in the same communities and must travel several hours to spend time together it would be nice to have a provincial calendar. I would love to plan more family vacations in the winter and with our shortened summer holidays we definitely have enough days off, they just don't land at the same time as the days off for my siblings and their children.
We still have a small, tight-knit population in this province and I feel at home everywhere in its borders I just find the timing to be a little off.
