Back to School

You’ve survived the summer holidays and the kids are all back at school, but how’s your bank balance?

January can be an overwhelming month. You’ve just endured Christmas with the family, cooking the meals, wrapping the presents, decorating the tree, packing the tree and the list seemed to never end. And just as you think it’s time to relax and put your feet up with a glass of vino, it’s time for the kids to go back to school. Exhausted? We are!

Preparing for the new school year

Going back to school means renewing everything. After we have spoilt them with gifts from ‘Santa’ we now must purchase a whole new range of things for the classroom. New shoes (because they’ve grown out of last year’s), new books, and of course the ever-increasing range of technological advances that we as parents don’t understand (nor do we care to!).

So, we are asking you - how is your budget? We love our children. But they are expensive. We cover a lot of the fundamentals within the budget we put aside for textbooks, but the older they get the more they need. OR, the more they lose.

Teenagers tend to lend things to their friends. But when they lend these things out, often these items they don’t come back. And with the technological advances, the times are vastly different from our days at school. No longer are essays written up and handed in on paper. Essays and assignments are done on computers. So, in addition to pens, paper and notebooks, comes all the computer accessories. Tablet (or device) cover, printer, ink cartridge, USB sticks, chargers and the list goes on.

These items provide our teenagers, not quite adults but like to pretend they are, even more opportunity to lose and lend things out. So our bank budget is constantly going meaning we can’t buy the Prada purse (or belt) that we so desire.

These items don’t stop with the school supplies. There is after-school sport, for which they need a hockey stick, a soccer ball, a tennis racquet. There are different uniforms for each sport, different types of sneakers (I don’t mean to sound old school but my cross-trainers were just fine when I was a teenager!), different coloured socks, the socks that can never be found and we are constantly re-purchasing.

Is there an answer?

Unfortunately, not. We love our children. And because we love them we need to be thankful for the time we enjoyed over the holidays, the memories we captured, the photos we will savour forever and that they are now back in school Monday to Friday. At night they are back doing their homework and getting closer to part-time jobs and entering the big wide world. So we just have to be grateful for the times we have!

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