To me, this can be summed up in two words: Gatekeeping happiness.
Unfortunately, there's always someone available to tell you that you're doing it wrong.
While I personally advocate for a little personal growth sometimes - which can mean being outside the routines - I'm also very fond of routine. The day doesn't start until a tea has been drunk.
As ever, life is short. If you enjoy your routines and they don't hurt anybody, don't let people gatekeep the definition of happiness.
","date":"02 August 2026 9:09am","isoDateTime":"2026-08-02T08:09:11Z","status":"visible","webUrl":"https://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/175315201","apiUrl":"https://discussion.guardianapis.com/discussion-api/comment/175315201","numResponses":0,"numRecommends":6,"isHighlighted":true,"userProfile":{"userId":"107313136","displayName":"ATC2025","webUrl":"https://profile.theguardian.com/user/id/107313136","apiUrl":"https://discussion.guardianapis.com/discussion-api/profile/107313136","avatar":"https://avatar.guim.co.uk/user/107313136","secureAvatarUrl":"https://avatar.guim.co.uk/user/107313136","badge":[]}},{"id":175315093,"body":"I'm not sure the author has given much thought to how this works in practice. I'm not a teacher, but I admire them and I can see that knowledge builds on foundations. If a child misses two weeks then they can't expect the rest of the class to wait from them. The alternatives to me seem to me to be for the parents to cover the work themselves, in which case they may as well home educate (and I can hear the cries of outrage now.) I followed that route due to a lack of local schools who could handle educationally advanced but autistic so with the social skills of a dead pot plant and it's hard work and I don't see how you can just slot in and out.)
Alternatively, could we follow the German route with different areas having staggered holidays? Or even accept that climate change may have to change how we structure education. Tired, too-hot children don't learn well, and it's tough on teachers too. Similarly weather extremes may make it difficult to get to school because not everyone lives in a city.
So maybe one answer is to have a blended system where children could go online to do their lessons? That way if they were contagious but not collapsed they could join in and the stuff they could get ahead with they could. Then parents who could show that their parents had hit targets could have holidays when they liked without disadvantaging children.
","date":"02 August 2026 8:59am","isoDateTime":"2026-08-02T07:59:24Z","status":"visible","webUrl":"https://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/175315093","apiUrl":"https://discussion.guardianapis.com/discussion-api/comment/175315093","numResponses":0,"numRecommends":5,"isHighlighted":true,"userProfile":{"userId":"11248685","displayName":"AVBrown","webUrl":"https://profile.theguardian.com/user/id/11248685","apiUrl":"https://discussion.guardianapis.com/discussion-api/profile/11248685","avatar":"https://avatar.guim.co.uk/user/11248685","secureAvatarUrl":"https://avatar.guim.co.uk/user/11248685","badge":[]}},{"id":175313081,"body":"I think the problem is two-fold. First is parents not understanding that molluscs are living animals, not fossils (dead animals or plants). Second is children not being encouraged to be kind to animals. As an example, watching parents encourage their children to chase pigeons is the tip of iceberg! Having an appreciation for nature is important. We are all part of the ecosystem and not everything is here for our entertainment or diet. It is right to speak up.
","date":"01 August 2026 4:59pm","isoDateTime":"2026-08-01T15:59:25Z","status":"visible","webUrl":"https://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/175313081","apiUrl":"https://discussion.guardianapis.com/discussion-api/comment/175313081","numResponses":1,"numRecommends":8,"isHighlighted":true,"userProfile":{"userId":"4509529","displayName":"ClaireScience","webUrl":"https://profile.theguardian.com/user/id/4509529","apiUrl":"https://discussion.guardianapis.com/discussion-api/profile/4509529","avatar":"https://avatar.guim.co.uk/user/4509529","secureAvatarUrl":"https://avatar.guim.co.uk/user/4509529","badge":[]}},{"id":175314493,"body":"That makes me think of the horrendous choice my sister and I will face when our father dies. His books (and those of my deceased mother) are their intellectual biography. They came out of the war, badly scathed and turned mostly towards translations of
Italian, French, English and Russian authors - German post-war books however are few and far apart - and then mostly presents from friends. When at 15 I was sent to spend a few weeks with a French family I was dumbfounded to find almost exclusively French literature in their well-stocked bookshelves.
To this day my father sometimes calls me when looking for some book that I then can accurately describe to him thanks to a good optical memory and hours spent in front of their shelves. They’re mostly post-war paperbacks and I have always been a sucker for the dignity of a well read paperback over a pristine hard-cover.
A moving and evocative writing centered on the remembrance of things past pointing the way to an implicit and unsayable slice of meaning and lived experience. Images of a life lived fully and an infinite subjective experiential world created as the horizon of the present evaporates while the archival past expands, a fate common to all humans. The sentiment expressed here could be accompanied by Rilke's observation \"Be ahead of all parting, as though it already were behind you, like the winter that has just gone by.\" Or viewed from a different existential angle, \"Perhaps we are here in order to say: house, bridge, fountain, gate, pitcher, fruit-tree, window.\" And of course books, lots and lots of books.
","date":"02 August 2026 5:18am","isoDateTime":"2026-08-02T04:18:28Z","status":"visible","webUrl":"https://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/175314442","apiUrl":"https://discussion.guardianapis.com/discussion-api/comment/175314442","numResponses":0,"numRecommends":8,"isHighlighted":true,"userProfile":{"userId":"13532624","displayName":"trp9871","webUrl":"https://profile.theguardian.com/user/id/13532624","apiUrl":"https://discussion.guardianapis.com/discussion-api/profile/13532624","avatar":"https://avatar.guim.co.uk/user/13532624","secureAvatarUrl":"https://avatar.guim.co.uk/user/13532624","badge":[]}},{"id":175314922,"body":"De Zerbi with a single cup to his name (as a coach), from Lithuania or wherever, kept Spurs up at the same time that Nuno was training a shotgun at West Ham's feet in his selections for the games away at Brentford and Newcastle. Weirdly, it was his new signing, Fernandes who also contributed so much to the final standings in the league - if he had not fluffed a glorious chance in the 84th (or so) minute of West Ham's home game against Arsenal, the home team might have won 1-0 and not lost by that scoreline. Raya's save was exemplary, but the shooter had a whole goal to aim at.
Fernandes, for me, also exemplifies another matter, which is the faster than ever churn of players that any given coach is required to contend with. He has famously, in his short career, already been in two squads that have been relegated from the top flight, but a sensational goal and a few - literally a few - others led to West Ham receiving close to £50M that they had paid for him only 38 league games earlier.
The game resembles more and more a carousel. The coaching positions are an interesting mix, but it is difficult to draw many conclusions from them, if they change so frequently. Look, simply, at Chelsea, now coached by someone who had an 'invicible' season and also went all the way to the final of the Europa League in the same season. Got a job at Real and surpassed his Bundesliga win rate, but still got sacked halfway through the season. Seems weirdly similar to Chelsea failing to work their way into a continental competition, at a time when the catchment funnel is at its widest, yet still managed to pick up the country's record signing AND a new (suspended - lol) punishment.
A carousel, or a zone flooded with new developments that make any predictions about as safe as these coaches positions?
","date":"02 August 2026 8:40am","isoDateTime":"2026-08-02T07:40:53Z","status":"visible","webUrl":"https://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/175314922","apiUrl":"https://discussion.guardianapis.com/discussion-api/comment/175314922","numResponses":1,"numRecommends":2,"isHighlighted":true,"userProfile":{"userId":"114145341","displayName":"walmai","webUrl":"https://profile.theguardian.com/user/id/114145341","apiUrl":"https://discussion.guardianapis.com/discussion-api/profile/114145341","avatar":"https://avatar.guim.co.uk/user/114145341","secureAvatarUrl":"https://avatar.guim.co.uk/user/114145341","badge":[]}},{"id":175314993,"body":"The issue with headteacher discretions is it creates more inequality because there is no uniform system. When does a Head approve - When a child only has 95% attendance? What if a child on 91% attendance had medical appointments ? Only approve for SEND pupils- what if you are a sibling but not SEND yourself ? What if it’s based on authorised v unauthorised absence - What if one school accepts more / wider reasons for illness than another? Ultimately headteacher discretion already exists but at least they work to the same uniform guidance.
I don’t think the current system is perfect but when school attendance is at near crisis levels in some parts of the country a consistent approach is needed.
I’d love to know what contributors in EU countries think / do
","date":"02 August 2026 8:49am","isoDateTime":"2026-08-02T07:49:00Z","status":"visible","webUrl":"https://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/175314993","apiUrl":"https://discussion.guardianapis.com/discussion-api/comment/175314993","numResponses":1,"numRecommends":5,"isHighlighted":true,"userProfile":{"userId":"1658308","displayName":"HairyBearCub","webUrl":"https://profile.theguardian.com/user/id/1658308","apiUrl":"https://discussion.guardianapis.com/discussion-api/profile/1658308","avatar":"https://avatar.guim.co.uk/user/1658308","secureAvatarUrl":"https://avatar.guim.co.uk/user/1658308","badge":[]}},{"id":175314967,"body":"I’d rather they tackled the ridiculous price-gouging of school holiday prices! I do think the approach when I was a kid of having to get the head’s permission sort of worked, but I’m also v aware that whereas for some kids a week of school missed will have no impact on their attainment, for others who may already be behind that’s a huge deal, unavoidable if it’s illness but best not done except in an emergency. There’s potentially a different kind of inequality if the permission hinges on whether the school thinks this particular child can afford to miss a week. So all in all while I agreed the current situ is heavy handed in the extreme, I’d rather action were taken at the pricing end (and that way teachers benefit too! At least for us it’s only temporary while the kids are kids, but for teachers the added expense of school holiday travel is with them until retirement!!)
","date":"02 August 2026 8:46am","isoDateTime":"2026-08-02T07:46:23Z","status":"visible","webUrl":"https://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/175314967","apiUrl":"https://discussion.guardianapis.com/discussion-api/comment/175314967","numResponses":2,"numRecommends":13,"isHighlighted":true,"userProfile":{"userId":"4578050","displayName":"indigohippo","webUrl":"https://profile.theguardian.com/user/id/4578050","apiUrl":"https://discussion.guardianapis.com/discussion-api/profile/4578050","avatar":"https://avatar.guim.co.uk/user/4578050","secureAvatarUrl":"https://avatar.guim.co.uk/user/4578050","badge":[]}},{"id":175314944,"body":"I'm curious where a line would be drawn though. Most full time workers have 5 weeks statutory leave. Could parents therefore take their children out of school for 5 weeks each year? I'm also not sure it's okay just because middle class parents do it - there's also a behavioural and learning crisis in that demographic at the moment. Maths and literacy rates are going down across the board.
I never went on holidays growing up. We stayed at home and took little road trips nearby. I turned out fine.
","date":"02 August 2026 8:43am","isoDateTime":"2026-08-02T07:43:36Z","status":"visible","webUrl":"https://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/175314944","apiUrl":"https://discussion.guardianapis.com/discussion-api/comment/175314944","numResponses":2,"numRecommends":16,"isHighlighted":true,"userProfile":{"userId":"115251317","displayName":"OccassionalComments","webUrl":"https://profile.theguardian.com/user/id/115251317","apiUrl":"https://discussion.guardianapis.com/discussion-api/profile/115251317","avatar":"https://avatar.guim.co.uk/user/115251317","secureAvatarUrl":"https://avatar.guim.co.uk/user/115251317","badge":[]}},{"id":175314980,"body":"Yep, I agree with comfort food and comfort TV, and would like add comfort books.
I don't mind trying new things, at the same time I've had the same for breakfast for a couple of years now (buttered toast and tea during the week, on the weekend it's rolls, eggs and tea).
With climate change and all the other catastrophes already happening or looming on the horizon, it's nice to be able to create little pockets of comfort in your life.
","date":"02 August 2026 8:47am","isoDateTime":"2026-08-02T07:47:48Z","status":"visible","webUrl":"https://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/175314980","apiUrl":"https://discussion.guardianapis.com/discussion-api/comment/175314980","numResponses":0,"numRecommends":5,"isHighlighted":true,"userProfile":{"userId":"112005778","displayName":"MrGrumple","webUrl":"https://profile.theguardian.com/user/id/112005778","apiUrl":"https://discussion.guardianapis.com/discussion-api/profile/112005778","avatar":"https://avatar.guim.co.uk/user/112005778","secureAvatarUrl":"https://avatar.guim.co.uk/user/112005778","badge":[]}},{"id":175314952,"body":"76yo, and \"I knows what I likes\". On the other hand, I'm also open to new experiences. It's like reading, isn't it? Sometimes you want to re-read Austen, just for that particular \"flavour\", and sometimes you're trudging through the current Booker long list at the library.
","date":"02 August 2026 8:44am","isoDateTime":"2026-08-02T07:44:05Z","status":"visible","webUrl":"https://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/175314952","apiUrl":"https://discussion.guardianapis.com/discussion-api/comment/175314952","numResponses":0,"numRecommends":4,"isHighlighted":true,"userProfile":{"userId":"12781745","displayName":"GreatAuntAnna","webUrl":"https://profile.theguardian.com/user/id/12781745","apiUrl":"https://discussion.guardianapis.com/discussion-api/profile/12781745","avatar":"https://avatar.guim.co.uk/user/12781745","secureAvatarUrl":"https://avatar.guim.co.uk/user/12781745","badge":[]}},{"id":175314964,"body":"I'm kind of going the other way, call it \"discomfort creep\" if you like, not an endless quest for new thrills but rather an embrace of minimalism as I age. Simpler meals, fewer things, less complicated holidays that involve one or two primary activities rather than multiple stops and \"must sees\", more accessible pleasures...
","date":"02 August 2026 8:45am","isoDateTime":"2026-08-02T07:45:46Z","status":"visible","webUrl":"https://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/175314964","apiUrl":"https://discussion.guardianapis.com/discussion-api/comment/175314964","numResponses":0,"numRecommends":10,"isHighlighted":true,"userProfile":{"userId":"116184341","displayName":"Pickfords","webUrl":"https://profile.theguardian.com/user/id/116184341","apiUrl":"https://discussion.guardianapis.com/discussion-api/profile/116184341","avatar":"https://avatar.guim.co.uk/user/116184341","secureAvatarUrl":"https://avatar.guim.co.uk/user/116184341","badge":[]}},{"id":175314844,"body":"I agree, Polly. Variety may be the spice of life, but \"rampant neophilia\" (a useful term I read in the Guardian in the era of Tony Blair) is a potentially destructive disease. We need to find a golden mean, and familiarity need not always breed contempt, but may rather often increase satisfaction. Basically, you have written about growing up.
","date":"02 August 2026 8:26am","isoDateTime":"2026-08-02T07:26:15Z","status":"visible","webUrl":"https://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/175314844","apiUrl":"https://discussion.guardianapis.com/discussion-api/comment/175314844","numResponses":0,"numRecommends":12,"isHighlighted":true,"userProfile":{"userId":"1855621","displayName":"UnashamedPedant","webUrl":"https://profile.theguardian.com/user/id/1855621","apiUrl":"https://discussion.guardianapis.com/discussion-api/profile/1855621","avatar":"https://avatar.guim.co.uk/user/1855621","secureAvatarUrl":"https://avatar.guim.co.uk/user/1855621","badge":[]}},{"id":175314820,"body":"This sounds good, albeit the menu looks a bit generic to me and not specific even to a particular country or region.
Reservations would include: I tend to avoid Mayfair, I'm sure I'm not the only one. Depends if it has the crass emptiness of Mayfair, a few bits on the very edge sometimes don't. Also the prices, no way are you getting out of there for 90 quid a head. Some of the mains are close to 60 quid and the sides another six or seven. And this is essentially bistro food, or is it? That's what the menu looks like, at least not too far beyond that.
I wouldn't usually quibble on the prices, people go to restaurants they deem to be in their budget, but idk, this restaurant is in a city where you can get a train to Paris and it's quite cheap to do so if you plan in advance. Hotels in Paris are relatively affordable too. Obviously that's gonna cost more than going here but you might get 48 hours and some pleasant memories.
","date":"02 August 2026 8:18am","isoDateTime":"2026-08-02T07:18:52Z","status":"visible","webUrl":"https://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/175314820","apiUrl":"https://discussion.guardianapis.com/discussion-api/comment/175314820","numResponses":2,"numRecommends":4,"isHighlighted":true,"userProfile":{"userId":"2906687","displayName":"saintpellegrino","webUrl":"https://profile.theguardian.com/user/id/2906687","apiUrl":"https://discussion.guardianapis.com/discussion-api/profile/2906687","avatar":"https://avatar.guim.co.uk/user/2906687","secureAvatarUrl":"https://avatar.guim.co.uk/user/2906687","badge":[]}},{"id":175314736,"body":"Comments here will close soon. Thanks all for your contributions.
","date":"02 August 2026 7:43am","isoDateTime":"2026-08-02T06:43:41Z","status":"visible","webUrl":"https://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/175314736","apiUrl":"https://discussion.guardianapis.com/discussion-api/comment/175314736","numResponses":0,"numRecommends":0,"isHighlighted":true,"userProfile":{"userId":"2902769","displayName":"CommunityMod","webUrl":"https://profile.theguardian.com/user/id/2902769","apiUrl":"https://discussion.guardianapis.com/discussion-api/profile/2902769","avatar":"https://avatar.guim.co.uk/user/2902769","secureAvatarUrl":"https://avatar.guim.co.uk/user/2902769","badge":[{"name":"Staff"}]}},{"id":175314735,"body":"Comments here will close soon. Thanks all for your contributions.
","date":"02 August 2026 7:43am","isoDateTime":"2026-08-02T06:43:39Z","status":"visible","webUrl":"https://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/175314735","apiUrl":"https://discussion.guardianapis.com/discussion-api/comment/175314735","numResponses":0,"numRecommends":0,"isHighlighted":true,"userProfile":{"userId":"2902769","displayName":"CommunityMod","webUrl":"https://profile.theguardian.com/user/id/2902769","apiUrl":"https://discussion.guardianapis.com/discussion-api/profile/2902769","avatar":"https://avatar.guim.co.uk/user/2902769","secureAvatarUrl":"https://avatar.guim.co.uk/user/2902769","badge":[{"name":"Staff"}]}},{"id":175314733,"body":"Comments here will close soon. Thanks all for your contributions.
","date":"02 August 2026 7:43am","isoDateTime":"2026-08-02T06:43:35Z","status":"visible","webUrl":"https://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/175314733","apiUrl":"https://discussion.guardianapis.com/discussion-api/comment/175314733","numResponses":0,"numRecommends":0,"isHighlighted":true,"userProfile":{"userId":"2902769","displayName":"CommunityMod","webUrl":"https://profile.theguardian.com/user/id/2902769","apiUrl":"https://discussion.guardianapis.com/discussion-api/profile/2902769","avatar":"https://avatar.guim.co.uk/user/2902769","secureAvatarUrl":"https://avatar.guim.co.uk/user/2902769","badge":[{"name":"Staff"}]}},{"id":175314731,"body":"Comments here will close soon. Thanks all for your contributions.
","date":"02 August 2026 7:43am","isoDateTime":"2026-08-02T06:43:33Z","status":"visible","webUrl":"https://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/175314731","apiUrl":"https://discussion.guardianapis.com/discussion-api/comment/175314731","numResponses":0,"numRecommends":0,"isHighlighted":true,"userProfile":{"userId":"2902769","displayName":"CommunityMod","webUrl":"https://profile.theguardian.com/user/id/2902769","apiUrl":"https://discussion.guardianapis.com/discussion-api/profile/2902769","avatar":"https://avatar.guim.co.uk/user/2902769","secureAvatarUrl":"https://avatar.guim.co.uk/user/2902769","badge":[{"name":"Staff"}]}},{"id":175314168,"body":"Thankyou for your positive reflection on what many people fashionably call clutter.
Physical memories is what I'll call those things in future.
","date":"02 August 2026 2:59am","isoDateTime":"2026-08-02T01:59:34Z","status":"visible","webUrl":"https://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/175314168","apiUrl":"https://discussion.guardianapis.com/discussion-api/comment/175314168","numResponses":0,"numRecommends":19,"isHighlighted":true,"userProfile":{"userId":"18077328","displayName":"TheOtherAndy","webUrl":"https://profile.theguardian.com/user/id/18077328","apiUrl":"https://discussion.guardianapis.com/discussion-api/profile/18077328","avatar":"https://avatar.guim.co.uk/user/18077328","secureAvatarUrl":"https://avatar.guim.co.uk/user/18077328","badge":[]}},{"id":175304195,"body":"The Glow Worm is one I still have to see. One day.
","date":"31 July 2026 9:34am","isoDateTime":"2026-07-31T08:34:20Z","status":"visible","webUrl":"https://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/175304195","apiUrl":"https://discussion.guardianapis.com/discussion-api/comment/175304195","numResponses":1,"numRecommends":0,"isHighlighted":true,"userProfile":{"userId":"13054683","displayName":"indigenousbrit","webUrl":"https://profile.theguardian.com/user/id/13054683","apiUrl":"https://discussion.guardianapis.com/discussion-api/profile/13054683","avatar":"https://avatar.guim.co.uk/user/13054683","secureAvatarUrl":"https://avatar.guim.co.uk/user/13054683","badge":[]}}]}