Snowdays are the best days!

The fact that I work in a school myself does give me a bit of a biased opinion, not least because when the schools close I sometimes get a 'day off' too. I also have an insight into what it is actually like in a school in the midst of unfamiliar weather conditions.

Young people need their education and any time off is detrimental to their learning, but just because school is open does not mean students are sat quietly ready to learn. Over a thousand teenagers, surrounded by tons of snow is not conducive to a positive learning environment.

It takes ages for all of them to make it to their classes, and when they get there they're half frozen and soaked in melted snow. Even when all the class is present and sitting down it's near enough impossible to keep them from staring out of the window, and their minds from wandering to next break time, when they can engage their friends in open snowball warfare on the field.

If people aren't moaning that schools should be kept open at all costs, they're harping on about how 'this country grinds to a halt with a tiny bit of snow' or 'back in my day we'd go to work despite 6 foot snow drifts' etc. That may be so, but the fact that snow was a more common occurrence meant that we were just better at dealing with it.

If we perpetually had winters that resulted in roads being covered in inches of snow, day after day then we would have practices in place for coping. I expect the council would have a fleet of snow ploughs ready to roll out whenever the situation demanded - not the few gritters that sprinkle salt over the roads in a futile effort to tackle the ensuing piles of snow.

If you're forced to have a day off work because of the snow, make the most of it. Get out there with your kids and build some snowmen, or annihilate them with a round of snowballs. Burn some calories by hauling them around on a sled, or get on it with them if you've got no shame - that's what I was doing come tea-time yesterday. The Boy and I got up to a good speed going down the hill, which was great until it emerged that we were hurtling towards the back of a parked van at an alarming rate. If the van's bumper wasn't head-height to a sledging boy we might have been alright, but as it was we had to do a dramatic manoeuvre, swerving to the right and throwing ourselves off the speeding sledge.

I am confident that all of this activity will have ensured that I've lost at least a pound by the time I next go to Fat Club, which will actually put me back to the weight I was when I started. Last week I'd actually gained. (That'll teach me to put away more chocolate that is right for a grown woman to consume)

As I type this most of the snow is thawing. The kids outside scamper to collect the last of the mushy dregs to add to a woeful looking snowman, and I think about going to work tomorrow. I'm wondering again what it would be like to be a stay at home mom, and to have every day be like this. The fact of the matter is it's just not going to happen for most working moms. We just have to make the most of opportunities like this as and when they present themselves.