Aurora Comms Blog

Back to school

Posted on 08. Sep, 2009 by PR Mum in News

The summer holidays are officially over. Mums and dads made a collective sigh of relief yesterday morning as their little darlings were ushered towards the school gates for the first day of the autumn term. The seven week holiday flew by much quicker than I expected and much fun was had by all. The big rotter learnt to ride a bike and had her first horse riding lessons – she later asked whether horses were expensive and whether we could have one in the back garden!

Despite much planning of outfits and washing of hair the night before, we were still late for the first day of school. We scuttled past the head teacher and headed for Rainbow Class, where the big rotter will be for the next year. Despite being late, she managed a good breakfast of pitta bread stuffed with cheese, tomatoes and basil. According to a recent report by Kelloggs’, a good breakfast is hard to come by for one in four 7-14 year olds. The survey of 1,000 parents and 1,000 children found that half a million children ate biscuits for their morning meal, 160,000 had a bag of crisps and more than 100,000 had a fizzy drink. In total, 1.27 million children regularly had a “bad” breakfast. So, despite being late for school, I can feel smug in the knowledge that we are not part of that statistic.

The return to school will no doubt bring the biggest sense of relief to stay-at-home mums, who have dealt with the full impact of the full seven weeks. A study of 7,000 women published in the journal Annals of Epidemiology suggested that housewives were more likely to suffer from heart disease and strokes than women who go to work. They were more likely to smoke, drink more, be overweight and suffer from depression. Seven weeks with the children could have the same effect for many parents used to being at work.

The return to school also meant the return to more rigid bedtimes to make sure the rotters get enough sleep and are bright-eyed for the next day. Despite exhausting them in the fresh air on Sunday and bed by 8.00 pm, they both woke up like clockwork at 6.00 am on Monday morning. New research from a team at the University of California might be able to explain why some of us are genetically programmed to spend longer in bed than others. Researchers have, for the first time, identified a genetic mutation linked to the amount of sleep people need. Those who carry the mutation sleep on average two hours less a night, but still function perfectly well. The postie and the two rotters all appear to be mutant larks, while I am the owl of the family.

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