How have the last six weeks gone for you? Trying to juggle a 40-hour working week with a hideous mash-up of summer camps, grandparent help and just winging it? Excellent, us too. School starts up again next week (mostly), and for many parents up and down the country it’ll provide long-overdue relief after a summer of trying to juggle childcare and work without any state-subsidised childcare in place (or really any sensible suggestion for what you’re supposed to do with your kids for the school summer holidays when every adult in the house works full time).
It’s not an issue for Joe Wicks though, every day is the summer holidays for the nation’s favourite PE teacher, who announced in July that he and his wife Rosie had decided to take his five-year-old daughter Indie out of school for at least a year so they could ‘travel more.’
'She had a great year in reception but we have always loved teaching the kids at home and want the freedom to travel more and explore the world,’ he said in an Instagram post at the time.
He elaborated that India might return to school in a year, but that no concrete plans had been made.
'She might go to school next year. We have no idea long term but want to do at least a year of home educating.'
At the time, some applauded Wicks’ decision, and talked about their own positive homeschooling experiences. Others pointed to the privilege that comes from having the time, resource and help to be able to make such tailored decisions about your children’s education and how you live your life as a family.
Education is compulsory for all children aged 5-16, but that doesn’t mean you need to send them to school. It’s perfectly legal to homeschool your children, and you don’t have to follow the national curriculum. The advantages are obvious, as well as the opportunities for travel (and not paying the half-term holiday tax as one Juggle commenter pointed out!) Wicks spoke this week about his plans to try and break America - using an apartment in Santa Monica as a base for his family.
He also spoke about wanting to have the extra time to spend together as as family. ‘I just love being with my kids…it’s not a permanent thing but we want to have another year together.’
Which is all great and lovely but, I’m going to assume (and I could be wrong) that the Wicks family probably have extra childcare and homeschooling help, given that they have three kids, he’s running a huge business and is also planning to break into the biggest market in the world this year. And if Rosie is taking on all the homeschooling herself, while also looking after two younger children? Well then frankly she deserves his MBE.
As I said, I could be wrong, and for all I know he’s doing phonics with a grumpy five-year-old at 7AM when they just want to watch Encanto again before starting a full day of work (although maybe not; Wicks has also shared that he tries to limit their screen time as much as possible), and if so, then more power to him. But the thought of that being my life, day in, day out, fills me with dread, which in turn makes me feel guilty because why do I seem to enjoy spending time with my kids so much less than Joe Wicks?
The reality, of course, is that I simply don’t have the bandwidth, time or energy to squeeze my children’s entire education into my day on top of everything else, and often I’m desperate for someone - anyone - to take them off my hands for a bit. For most people school (or nursery, which I’m currently spending a second mortgage on) represents childcare, education, an opportunity to earn a living, headspace, and time to reset. I know homeschooling is not for me and not for us as a family - we just couldn’t and if we tried it would break us, yet somehow it has the power to become another parenting ideal I’ll never live up to.
The decisions he and Rosie can make about how he raises his family are completely singular to them, and Wicks hasn’t presented his decisions his homeschooling as anything else. But it’s naive to think that someone whose life is a brand - especially one focusing on health and wellbeing, and with a healthy dose of parenting in there - can talk about this sort of thing publicly without forcing a comparison with other parent’s very different experiences.
It’s totally up to Wicks how much information he wants to share about his family life, and it’s up to the rest of us how much we want to read about it. But presenting his uniquely privileged set of circumstances as everyday family life is always going to grate on the rest of us - knackered, broke parents who’ve had some of the hardest years of our lives.