Feteing it

One of the secrets to parenting, I discovered early, is to have a faultless, easy and easy to transport recipe that can be trawled out as soon as the warmer months hit. Once the kids are at school you’ll be called upon at least four or five times a year to pop on an apron and serve up a slice, ice, cake or scone, AND cough up a couple of bucks so your own children can pick up someone else’s delicacies.

If dealing with the never-ending flow of weekend birthday parties weren’t already enough, spring time is also the peak season for festivals where every school, municipality, church group or community organisation either throws its own fete or calls in volunteers to man the stalls at a larger community “do”.

Already working longer hours than either our baby boomer forebears, many of whom are now easing their way into semi-retirement, or our Gen Y successors who seem to have a much healthier concept of work-life balance than us, it also turns out Gen Xers are also putting in the most time as volunteers.

The last time the Australian Bureau of Statistics investigated volunteering rates, it was the parents of school-aged children that took the crown for the most active volunteers. Sixty-four per cent of mothers and 51 per cent of fathers had undertaken volunteering in the past 12 months. This compared with an average of 36 per cent who had volunteered their time within the past 12 months across the rest of the population. What’s more interesting is volunteers are more likely to be in full- or part-time work, have a higher level of education and better overall health than their non-volunteering counterparts.

But that’s not why we do it.

This coming Sunday I’ll be one of the full-time working parents dragging myself out of bed, baking a few dozen cupcakes, donning jeans and comfy shoes and putting in my hand at the Croydon Public School Christmas Markets. Around the country tens of thousands of parents will be doing the very same but it’s not because we need the networking, or the sugar fix, or because it’s been recommended by our GP.

It’s because it’s fun.

It’s because we remember the sheer thrill of staring across a table of colourful home-made treats, brows furrowed as we calculate how many we could buy with the handful of coins we managed to con out of our own parents and the rush of emotion as we shared a ride with school mates.

It’s because sharing that fun with our own kids is one of the many pleasures of parenthood and while they’re running themselves ragged, fuelled by an unhealthy dose of coconut ice, we might even fit an adult conversation into the mix.

What’s your tip for making it through the Spring fete season? Write and tell me your views.

BRW

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