I should preface this by saying that back in MY day, we didn't have any stinking "Spring Break". (Furthermore, we had to roll our Easter eggs uphill both ways through the driving snow and make our own chocolate bunnies out of twine and mud.) The Great Falls Public Schools gave its pupils a couple of days, maximum, for what was then called "Easter Break". We generally got Good Friday off, and sometimes--if we were very lucky--Easter Monday. The school year contained but one extended break, Christmas, and even that seemed woefully short.
Ah, how times have changed. First of all, the breaks are longer. Even K-12 students now get a "spring break"--though the length of it varies from district to district. But the bigger change for me is that no break seems short anymore, let alone woefully so. Connery's Montessori has been closed since the afternoon of April 3rd and will not reopen until tomorrow, and that, Internet, is a problem. Because guess what doesn't go along with school breaks? Why, adult vacation time, of course!
This year, we dodged a major bullet. My parents offered to take Connery for all of last week (thus explaining my blog silence as I lolled about the house in a single-child stupor), since they had been planning a trip for him and his cousin Hannah at the end of the week anyway. He stayed with them in Great Falls by himself for three days and then they all went to Fairmont Hot Springs for a few days. On Friday, the traveling caravan came to Livingston and dropped him off. He had had a great time, and we had solved the "Oh, shit, what do we do with Connery for a week while both of us are supposed to be working!" dilemma that crops up every time there is a school break. Nana and Papa to the rescue!
Then, Grandpa Rick and Grandma Linda showed up yesterday from California, and Grandpa Rick really wanted to catch the last day of skiing at Bridger Bowl, so the Ritters three headed off to the ski hill this morning. Last day of vacation solved!
So that's one spring break down, just...um...18 more to go?
I never realized growing up just how good I had it. My parents were both teachers, so when school was closed, chances are they were home as well. There were exceptions, of course, but for the most part, they were on the same schedule I was. And that turns out to be pretty damned important once your kids get into school.
I have great memories of Christmas breaks and summer holidays, sleeping in and having no schedule and generally doing all the things a kid is stereotypically supposed to do on such pauses. The trouble is that, until this spring break, I don't think Connery has ever gotten to have a real vacation of this sort. Chip and I still have to go to work, which means that he has to come with me to work--which is not in any way fun for either of us--or I have to swap around my work schedule and try to work extra before the break so that I can be off with him. Neither option results in particular relaxation, let alone the kind of unstructured holiday that I can remember so well.
And I'm one of the lucky ones. None of my work necessarily has to be done on a strict schedule and much of it can be done from home, but it's still stressful every time I see how long we're supposed to be occupying Connery and working at the same time. I don't know how people who have inflexible workplaces handle it.
I don't begrudge Connery's teachers--or any educators--the breaks they need to stay fresh. But even so, it seems that this is one more area where the American work-life balance sheet is totally off. How do you handle it when your kids have vacation and you don't?