I was the mother of holiday invention ... until my kids went feral and I went to yoga
But let me tell you this: Yoga is for wimps.
Opinion
December 29, 2025 — 3.30pm
December 29, 2025 — 3.30pm
At the start of school holidays, like a good disciple of modern mindfulness, I set my intention: the summer holidays will be fun and relaxing – a chance to reconnect with my kids_._ After all, I’d be off work as well. I would be the ringleader of fun.
By day three, however, utterly exhausted from how much fun we’d been having, I caved in and booked my four- and six-year-olds into holiday programs so I could take a meditative yoga class.
The first stage of school-holiday acceptance, denial, had swiftly transformed into the second (anger) when relentless demands for snacks were coupled with the frequent, impromptu home remodelling that small children are wont to do when screen time is refused. Plus, there was slime appearing on the walls, like something out of The Exorcist.
It helps to keep the kids – and their parents – occupied.Credit: Getty Images
The third stage, depression, swiftly followed. I needed some me time.
As I lay in a darkened room, limbs contorted in an unnatural position while the meditative yoga instructor struck tiny, expensive cymbals, probably handmade in Tibet, I realised my stamina for hanging out with my kids was the only thing out of shape.
Let’s be honest, it’s easier to be at work than around small children (unless you work with small children, and in that case, I send condolences and a nomination for the Order of Australia).
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Could I treat spending time with my kids as a kind of meditative practice, reclaiming my sanity by breathing through the discomfort and chaos, as in yoga? Could I give my kids the gift of my presence and undivided attention, even if my presence is haggard and my attention is tetchy?
There’s a TikTok parenting trend (isn’t there always?) with the hashtag #corememories. It’s filled with clips of people’s kids doing something wholesome, such as jumping in puddles, accompanied by instrumental music from Pixar’s Inside Out. The caption reads, “Letting my children create core memories”. It’s as though the parent has curated this moment of unbridled childhood, and is glowing with the positive feedback from packaging it for mass consumption.
As Kathryn Jezer-Morton wrote in The Cut – under the headline “Why are parents fixated on core memories”: “Presuming to know what experiences will be most formative for your children, and then taking the next step and boasting about that presumption to everyone you know, is a new level of buy-in to the charade of happy-family cosplay on social media.”