40 years of school ends today.

This is so weird. I thought I had finishe ed with stuff but oh no! The transitions and leavings and so on. When my elder son went to Uni, I slept in his bed for weeks.
Younger one ,I worried. To ing and froing to schools, to Scout camps, to rehearsals and to a lesser extent Uni.

Then they reappear! One of them is livimg in our smallish home. Ive had to pick up some paid work.

I'm not dismissing your struggles, OP. Just expect the unexpected!

Travelling to Orkney by bus sounds fantastic! I think change, especially after 40 years, so often brings grief. We do so much to ward off sadness, but maybe you can just wander for a while, holding hands with that strange, dislocated feeling of loss. Other energies will appear and take up space, the sadness will get smaller. Parenting adults is something I'm just getting to grips with. It's a whole new journey isn't it? I hope yours takes you to Orkney to stand in silver light and the wind off the sea. Maybe see you there. X

Wow, I can't even wrap my head around this.

I have 2 kids, and with only 19 months between them, they were only a year apart at school.

I was 45, and DH was 42, when our son left for Uni.

I was 46, and DH was 43, when our daughter left for Uni.

This was 10/11 years ago.

Travel is the answer - we love our adventures!

That’s over 9 children.

😮

I’ve done 22 years so far, got 10 left to go! That’s over 9 children. I’ve done 22 years in the same primary school, so when youngest leaves in 3 years I’ll have spent 25 years walking there twice a day, or 3 or 4 times a day when I had little ones in nursery!

Wowsers I was born when your eldest started school & I moan about my school runs (2dc 2 yr gap) 😆

I"m trying to work it out - so your youngest is 18 and therefore was born in 2007, but your oldest started school in 1985 so was born in 1981 - my goodness you have stamina, woman!

We are about to finish a 9 year association with DD primary school which is about 3 minutes walk from our house and we have a very love/hate relationship with the very loud, very single minded HT. We can hear her on Sports days and school fair days through her megaphone, in our back yard. So I don't think our association will be over until she retires!

That's an amazing achievement @RapunzelsSplitEnds and it's something that puts you in expert territory, so thank you for sharing your knowledge.

I won't serve anywhere near that time as a school mum but I do have in common that I had my one and only at an age which means I'll be around 65 when he finishes his school career. He hasn't yet started, he's 4 at the very end of August and we've had the start deferred to next year, so I have it all to come. I'm very cheered by your post, it's making me look forward to it all.

congratulations on your new beginning!

Congratulations for making it through!!

I have big age gaps too. Dc1 started school in 1993, and dc4 is in year 8, so 32 years so far.... It's pretty scary when you write it down like that!

Just been working out your age when you had your DCs. I wonder how they get on / how close they are with such big age gaps?

Personally I would be booking myself onto breaks/ holidays (UK and abroad). Start this September

22 years of school finished here , not sure how to advice so will watch this thread with interest. Your not alone

Oh wow OP I thought I'd had a long haul of school runs! Currently on year 21 and my youngest is 6 so I've still a way to go yet!

I must admit I will cheer with joy when I'm no longer tied to the school run life but I agree it's a huge change to face when it's been your day to day for such a huge chunk of your life.

I didn’t have big gaps like you, @RapunzelsSplitEnds, but I do remember that feeling, when the youngest finished school. I did realise how nice it was not to have to have all the term dates, holiday dates and in-service days marked on my calendar!

Then ds2 decided to do his teacher training, when he graduated, and now I am back to having to have some idea of the term dates.

Just finished 25 years. Four children. First started 2001 and last finished last week. She still has college to do but that involves less involvement once she’s settled into her course in September.

We went out and got ourselves some holiday shoes today and realised I wouldn’t have to buy school shoes next month for the first time in 25 Septembers!

I’m looking forward to our non school holiday holiday next month and the freedom from the school system.

Wow so you were 47 when your last child was born?

Good God! No more school concerts, no more PTA meetings, no more dinner money, no more parents evenings. Celebrate like it's VE Day!

That's amazing OP.

I've just worked out that my "school years" are going to span 27 years. I have 15 years between them, so my eldest had finished and I had a year off before my youngest started reception. That one year when neither was in education was also the year that Covid shut schools - very fortunate timing for us all.

My youngest finishes school next year (6th form) after 27yrs of school run. I cannot wait

I will be starting picking up when DGC starts school next year. Really not looking forward to the school gates. Last did this in 2012

My first school run was 1975,my last 2010, 21 years between oldest and youngest, second marriage
.a. Year after youngest DD was born dgs was born. Then more dgks ,am actually doing a school run in a minute for 15 year.old dgd,who is staying over. I never fitted in the clicky school mums since the 70s when I had friends with kids the same age ..
.
.

You may adjust more quickly than you think OP. It's exactly a year since my youngest left school and I have already started to lose track of the pattern of the school year - and that's despite the fact I do some voluntary work with school aged children. As an example, we had some uncharacteristically nice weather here in February and DH and I decided to go for a walk in a popular tourist spot that we generally avoid because it gets so busy, but is usually pretty quiet in Winter. We couldn't even get parked and had to come home! We were mystified and then it dawned on me that it was half term. I had completely forgotten about it, which is surprising when you consider that holiday dates would have been etched on my brain and pretty much dictated our lives for the last 20 odd years. I knew that would happen but I didn't expect it to be quite so rapid!
Though a few days ago DH suggested booking a holiday as for various reasons we haven't planned anything so far this year. I rolled my eyes and said that I thought it would be very difficult to find anywhere good at such short notice now. He then pointed out that we weren't restricted to school holidays any more and he was thinking of an Autumn break. So maybe I'm not quite adjusted yet after all!

I was born in 1980 and my eldest child has just finished his A levels so I assume there must be a 27-27 year age gap between the OPs eldest and youngest children!

Maybe consider applying to be a governor at some point? You'd bring a useful perspective with the different practices you've observed.

Out of interest how old are you @RapunzelsSplitEndsand how old were you when you had each of your kids?