Peace has descended on homes across the state and the frantic calls to grandparents and friends to help out with “school holiday day care” have ended.

Sinking back into my comfy lounge chair after our first school drop-off I had an unexpectedly rude awakening.

For the first time in months, I sat down with a cup of tea and took a leisurely scroll through the world of Instagram.

Very quickly I began to think that there was something seriously wrong with my family.

Splashed across this social media outlet were beautiful pictures of children heading back to school.

Their faces were beaming, their uniforms neatly ironed and worn with pride, and their school bags were perched high on their backs.

Arm in arm, brothers and sisters enjoying the moment. Picture-perfect family back-to-school photos.

Our first day of the new school year didn’t go quite like that. Smooth sailing for the first hour and then when it came time for a photo at the front door, all hell broke loose.

My seven-year-old slipped on the step and his front tooth landed in his eight-year-old brother’s head.

Falling somewhat dramatically to the floor clutching his head, the eight-year-old started screaming at his little brother that this was all his fault.

So dad jumps in, having not witnessed the accident, and has his rant to our youngest son about not hurting his brother.

Now this child starts screaming as well at the injustice of dad’s comments when it was an accident. I am still standing there trying to get the “back to school” photo.

We are now running late for our first day. Both boys are bundled into the car, still screaming, and we drive to school.

A second attempt is now made at a photo, but both refuse to stand next to one another. At this point, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Other families are walking calmly past us as my husband and I try to bribe, then coerce and then threaten our boys into standing still, side by side, for 10 flipping seconds so we can have a photo.

We gave up.

Looking at the lovely images of my friends’ kids heading off to school for the day, I wonder if I should post the reality of my morning alongside their perfect morning?

The only photo I actually got was first, out of focus, and second, only showing the backs of their heads walking as far away from each other as the footpath allowed.

We are going to try again in 2019.