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Restless Quills

High quality articles to inform and entertain, to educate and discuss life, its humor, its joy, and its sadness. Open to all writers. Life experience is important, share it with us. Write here, right now.

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Humor || Life || Friendship

Alyce Through The School Holidays

A breathless tale of a mother's woes

5 min readAug 8, 2026

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A harassed, dark curly-haired young woman trying to contain the havoc in her kitchen wreaked by her two young sons, who are creating chaos. And being chased by two whippet dogs. The kitchen has dusky pink cupboards, and a pink and white tablecloth covers a large kitchen table, which has crayons, board games, building blocks and colouring books on it. The glass patio doors show a rainy day, green grass and trees. The kitchen is warm and welcoming, and the atmosphere is one of childish fun
Image created by KCB using MS Designer

Alyce arrived at my house wearing the expression of someone who had recently survived a small but determined hurricane.

Before I could say hello, she launched into full conversational cruise speed.

“You have absolutely no idea what the school holidays are like in our house. Six weeks! Six whole weeks! Whoever invented six-week holidays clearly didn’t have two energetic boys aged five and nine. If the sun shines, they’re explorers. If it rains, they’re mountaineers. If it’s cloudy, apparently it’s the perfect time to recreate a medieval battle in my living room.”

She then dug through her large designer handbag, finally unearthing a pack of tissues from the detritus of crayons, biscuit wrappers, and one inexplicably sticky sock.

I smiled sympathetically and gave a slow nod. It was going to be one of those visits. I settled down into my comfortable chair as Alyce continued.

“And don’t get me started on the weather. One minute it’s glorious, and they’re begging for the park. The next minute it’s raining sideways, so we’re trapped indoors. People always say, ‘Play board games.’

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Wandering Mind
Wandering Mind

Written by Wandering Mind

UK Wife, Mum & Grandma. Personal experience, reminiscences, vents, humour and things I find interesting in my everyday life

Restless Quills
Restless Quills

Published in Restless Quills

High quality articles to inform and entertain, to educate and discuss life, its humor, its joy, and its sadness. Open to all writers. Life experience is important, share it with us. Write here, right now.