Ready for 12 years of school? It’s a wild ride ahead!

The long haul starts this week. After all the smartphone pix and the social media postings last week, you’ve got 12 years of dropping kids off at school – and picking them up afterwards – on your immediate horizon.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg; there’s paying the fees every year, replacing blazers that get stolen, the stationery, the books, the school trips.

Then there’s going to the school on Saturdays to watch your child play sport and then a couple of evenings a term to either sit through a parent-teacher meeting or collect the reports.

If they are in plays, scratch off another couple of nights in the diary.

The real education doesn’t begin and end at the school gate, it happens at home behind closed doors; making sure the kids are fed, bathed and get to bed on time.

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It’s about cutting them enough time to do their homework, which gets almost as out of control as the weight of the books they’re expected to cart around the school grounds from one classroom to the other.

It’s about being there to listen, not judge, when they tell you they’ve fallen in love – or had their hearts broken. It’s about teaching them to deal with the predators in the classroom and the bullies on the field without becoming those themselves.

The biggest part of this whole school thing is just being there, being committed – as a parent.

The teachers will tell you that they can only work with what they’ve been given, they can’t work miracles… although many of them do, time and time again.

It’s perhaps the hardest lesson we must learn as parents, because we’ve forgotten what it was like to be a child.

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In many cases, adulting hasn’t turned out the way we might have dreamt. That’s not your kid’s fault, so don’t make it theirs.

Parenting isn’t rocket science, you’ve just got to be the example you want them to become, so when the terrible teens hit and the wheels come off, look in the mirror first before rolling up your sleeves and getting stuck in.

The next 12 years are going to go by in a flash – for you, not them.

Soon you’ll be posting of pix of the class of 2036, so make sure you enjoy every minute, even the tears and the gnashing of teeth – which might be yours, not theirs.