The school run

The Twilight Zone

It was a bright and cold autumn day, schools had recently opened after a long summer holiday in the UK. As home time approached, the area outside the school was calm with only a few parents steaming in slowly to collect their children. I arrived with my head in the ‘twilight zone’ . A term I often used and my daughters never quite understood the meaning.

I had been working night shifts in a health care facility and manged to catch some few hours of sleep before picking up my daughters from school. The twilight zone meant waking up after around five hours of sleep, feeling dazed, orientated, tired and in a brain fog. I had worked on night shifts for two years now and managed well with routine.

After a night shift in the morning, I would come home to a quiet house, my kids had already gone to school and dropped off by their dad before he went to work. Having a family of six meant busy mornings however it was much easier now that the older two boys were in high school. I usually had a shower before having a light snack. I was not quite sure whether to call this breakfast or dinner, just a light meal. Today, i cooked sweet french toast with a touch of cinnamon and a cup tea. Either way something light to eat was acceptable. I would normally fall asleep around 10.30 am and sleep almost soundly till around pm, school home time. Sometimes I would be woken up by the doorbell, another delivery, or my neighbours dogs barking, or vans driving past the quiet cul de sac.

On this particular day, my alarm woke me up around ten minutes to three in the afternoon. The weather was dark, cold and windy. I was still very sleepy but had to do my mummy duties and collect my two younger daughters from school. They were aged eight and ten respectively.

My head was still trying to catch up very quickly with the day shift, but my body was tired. These is what I called the ‘twilight zone’. I looked at my phone for the third time and it was the dreaded quarter past three. I paced myself downstairs, put my coat over my usual leggings and sweatshirt and rushed out of the door.

The walk to school took around ten minutes, I passed some few mothers i knew and waved at them, no time for small talk today, felt tired. Soon, I was at the school gates. I was early today and watched as the more parents and streamed closer to the school.

The area outside the gates tended to get busier as more cars drove near the school. Traffic lights nearby would sometimes stop and parents with small children crossed over to the school.

I realized over time that the fastest method getting of out of the so called ‘twilight zone’ was watching people and sometimes chatting to other parents. Within a very short time I was out the fog zone into daytime mode. I watched as more parents, guardians, child minders and older siblings mostly in high school standing near the gates and chattering away. Some of the girls wore very short shirts, no tights, blazers and no coats in the beginning of autumn. I wondered whether they felt the cold and biting chilly weather

Fellow boys would walk past with backpacks, and some talked very loudly, sometimes swore as they talked about their day.

I was quite taken by some women who had some make up, tailored clothes and even lanyards and knew they had finished work. On the other hand, most of us wore thick dark colored coats over trousers.

Soon enough, one of the teachers walked on the other side of the school gate and opened it. She was my daughters teacher and knew most of the parents who collected the children. The small children would be sat inside and had a very narrow view of the parents outside. were pleasant, one of then clocked my eyes and called my daughter name. She took a few minutes and came out with a big smile carrying her school bag and lunch box. We hugged each other tightly and walked to pick up her older sister on the other side of the school. My younger daughters were born almost three years apart but almost close in heights and some people would call them twins like the shopkeeper who owned a shop near our house. We picked up my other daughter from her classroom and headed home. It was a slow walk, each of my daughters competing to talk about their day. There were arguments and sometimes laughter. Mummy I got a sticker for reading, look its on my T shirt, Mama, my older daughter called me, she continued to tell me that her teacher was stern and punished her for talking to her friend. I nodded and occasionally said ‘okay; however, my mind was still trying to wake up fast and keep up with my daughters talks. They were both chatter boxes and always competed to tell the most interesting stories about their day in school.

Today it was brutal, my older daughter decided that being punished in school was more interesting than a boring sticker for reading ‘baby’ books. She enjoyed teasing her younger sister.

There were lots of people and children walking home, sometimes we would walk on one side to give way to kids with bikes and scooters. Cars would drive by and buses and sometimes my daughters would wave to their classmates sat on top deck of the grey double decker bus that drove alongside our way home.

By the time we were almost home my head was truly out of the ‘twilight zone and into day shift mode trying to shout as my daughters ran near a road. ' Do not stand so close to the road side and wait for me! ’ I knew that the front door race was about to start. We crossed the final road, and they both run towards our house door. The front door race was a game of running and whoever stepped into the house first wins. However, my daughters took the game a step further, whoever threw one of their items inside the house first wins, this was usually a lunch box or a school bag. They loved playing the front door race though the loser would usually start a mini fight which ended up in tears or school bags been thrown out of the house and left on the front door. The tricky thing was i became pretty much involved in the outcome because i was the one who held the key and opened the front door. I walked to the front door and my daughters were waiting for me each grabbing the handle, I put the key in the keyhole and opened the door, my younger daughter threw her lunch bag which landed near the shoes on the hallway. However, my older daughter stepped in the house first and i had to decide within seconds who won!.

While i was thinking back to the new front door game rules, my older daughter had decided that mama was too slow judging the race. She took action and this became a messy game. She hastily she grabbed her younger sisters lunch box and threw it over the small bush overlooking the front door. The fight of throwing each others coats, bags and lunch boxes out of the house declared that the game rules had ceased and the fight was a major one. On this occasion my younger daughter retaliated and grabbed her sisters coat walked past me and threw the coat on the pavement next to the bush! Then the two girls started shouting at each other, ‘‘Loser, don’t you ever touch my coat again or next time i will open your lunch box and threw on the road!’’

God help anyone walking past our house on this day. Luckily the street was quiet and only three parents whom i recognized from the school run and their younger children were walking towards our house. They saw the girls arguing, smiled and walked past and I am sure they understood that parenting was not easy right?

The twilight zone was long gone and i had a fight to either referee or finish before anything else gets thrown out! Welcome to my world of parenting and the school run.