Tuesday 4 January 2011

Don't mock me

Not bad.

Not bad at all.

Just 389 e-mails in my in box on return to the office. It took no more than 10 minutes to delete all but five of them. And nothing there to give me the willies. So 2011 starts well. I'm pleased.

For the teens, it's slightly different. They will go back to school tomorrow to face the mountain that is mock GCSEs. The Mocks have been hanging over them all holiday, as, no doubt, it has for countless other kids their age.

As we all know, men are from Mars and women from Venus, and this is perfectly exemplified by their respective approaches to revision.

The Cat rises early and works through the day and into the evening to a rigorous timetable (distractions apart that is). One element of each subject, read, re-read and analysed every forty-five minutes. It's no fun. But she'll do well.

By comparison, The Boy manages a leisurely lie-in, followed by a shower, a bit of breakfast before returning to his bed. At some stage he will re-appear for a coffee, perhaps a wander upstairs to the Top Room for another go at Assassin's Creed on the X-Box. And so the day continues. Somewhere, at some stage, the revision does get done. But I've no idea how, where or when. It scares the living daylights out of me. But he'll do well. I just don't know how.

The exams go on until the end of next week, by which time I'll be a nervous wreck. The teens will be relieved, and we'll all be able to celebrate the end of the First Stressful period of the school year.