I was booking in childcare for a busy work period at the beginning of August when I felt the seeds of resentment start to grow. My husband Mark wouldn’t dream of booking childcare if he was working: he’d tell me what he was doing and know I’d fit my work around his. Which, of course, I would.
I watered those seeds by reminding myself of how responsible I feel at all times: it’s out of the question that I’d lie in over the summer holidays and just know everything was being taken care of; that I would ever forget about school uniforms that need ordering; that I’d not commit everyone’s school timetables to memory so I can draw up a plan for September that involves pick ups and drop offs for three children at two different schools, some days at almost the same time. I would never, if Mark went out, only put our youngest to bed before falling asleep while he was out, so confident he would be back to sort out the other two.
Mark is a brilliant husband and father and generally we share the load pretty equally. But I realised I have brewed this feeling before – during a similarly short-but-busy work patch midway through the last summer holidays.
Shorts
I’m not the only one whose resentment peaks during holidays, when the parenting juggle is at its limit. Maguire Family Law says divorces spike in September consistently, and it outstrips the traditional January peak. Across the past four years, the firm has received 29 per cent more enquiries in September than in January. Managing director James Maguire says: “For some, the break highlights issues around communication, finances or an unequal division of childcare and household responsibilities that can no longer be ignored.”
