I think I speak for all of us when I say our kids have been driving us INSANE all summer! HALLELUJAH AND HEAVEN ON A POPSICLE STICK, the kids are FINALLY about to go back to school! I’ve been marking off the days on my calendar and jiggly-dancing with unbridled joy! YESSSSSSSSSSS!!!!
Wait, wha??? No I haven’t.
I’m not ready at all for school to start! I mean, I understand the theory in concept: the fewer kids there are in the house, the quieter the house, the less crap to clean up, the fewer disputes to mediate, etc… I get that. But there are worse things, comrades!
Namely:
1) I have to start setting my alarm clock again. Oh, COME ON! I just settled into my stay-up-til-one-and-sleep-til-nine schedule. The kids know how to turn on the TV in the morning, pour themselves a bowl of cereal, and leave me the heck alone. And now I have to readjust to getting up at the butt-crack of dawn again? AND I have to give up my precious late-night alone time? Would someone please pass me a tissue? *sniff*
2) Don’t even get me started on the morning routine. Coaxing my son out of bed while it’s still dark is like trying to disarm a bomb; you just never know when he might go off. And once my grumpy little troll has at last been pried from his mattress with the Jaws of Life, he slumps listlessly in front of his oatmeal in a catatonic state, eyes glazed over and a string of drool dangling precariously from one corner of his mouth. I have to practically shove food down his throat so he doesn’t end up starving at eleven in the morning and having a meltdown in class. Getting dressed is so difficult that I had to make a chart for him. Underwear first, son, pants next. (Doesn’t it seem like that would be obvious?)
3) I have to make my kid’s lunch every morning before I’ve even had my coffee. I mean, I don’t HAVE to… but the stuff they serve in the cafeteria… well I’m not sure it can really be classified as food. And the school lets the kids choose what they put on their tray, so many kids’ cafeteria lunches consist of a slice of pizza, a brownie, an ice-pop, and chocolate milk. My kid has ADHD; if he ate a lunch like that, he would probably explode. That would be a trifle traumatizing for his classmates, I think. And for all you organized super-moms who are about to suggest I make his lunch the evening before? Uh… well, I don’t have a snappy come-back for you. You’re absolutely right, I should totally do that. But I won’t, because I’m not that organized. So there.
4) School-year grooming is more demanding than summer-time grooming. We can get away with lackadaisical hygiene over the summer – but when school is in session, teachers, administrators, other moms, the janitor… they will all judge me if my kid’s hair is too long, he stinks, there’s dirt under his nails, or a little wax is showing in his ear canal. These are all things which, during summer, can be swept under the proverbial rug. After all, the pool is anti-microbial, right? (Until someone’s kid takes a shit in it, then not so much, I guess.)
5) My kid has to get used to wearing closed-toed shoes again. After a summer of nothing but Crocs and flip-flops, regular shoes (no open-toed or sling-backs, per the dress code!) suddenly feel like medieval-torture devices. “My shoes feel weird, Mommy.” “Something’s rubbing/pinching/squishing/scratching me, Mommy.” “There’s a wrinkle in my sock, Mommy.” I need another tissue, please. Or a Xanax.
6) Schedules get crazy during the school year. The mere act of programming all the obligatory meetings and appointments into my phone calendar exhausts me. And that’s before I actually DO any of the stuff. During the summer we lazily float through the days, and all the fun stuff we do is on impulse, just how we like it. But the school year is a highly-scheduled smorgasbord of after-school activities, teacher conferences, required volunteer hours, birthday parties, school recitals, project due-dates… just kill me now.
7) Homework once again becomes part of the daily routine. I’m sorry, weren’t you just in school for six hours, kid? They couldn’t squeeze enough learning into SIX HOURS? Ya gotta do an extra hour at home while I’m trying to fold laundry and cook dinner? I thought I was done with homework when I graduated college; this is a fresh new hell.
8) During the school year, the kids need to be on a consistent bed-time routine. No more “if you rub/walk on/scratch Mommy’s back, you get to stay up later” crap. They actually require a certain number of hours of sleep to function at optimal capacity, and it’s on me to make sure they get it.
9) Fundraisers. Here’s a hundred bucks, school. NOW LEAVE ME ALONE.
10) When big kids go back to school, little ones at home lose their playmates. This is probably a good thing if your kids can’t stand each other. And if you don’t have little ones at home, this obviously doesn’t apply to you. But my eight- and four-year-olds are best friends and play together all day long with only infrequent altercations. (Knocking on wood right now; I’m not an idiot.) When my son goes into third grade, my daughter will inevitably force me to sludge through countless hours of My Little Pony, following her impromptu script for what each of the characters are supposed to say. The worst thing about this is that I actually know all the Pony’s personalities and dialects, and am incapable of performing my part without being fully in character. If you have any concept of how distinct each of the main characters of My Little Pony are, you know how much skill this requires. Go ahead, clap. I’ll wait.
And if you want to know the real truth… I’ll miss my son while he’s at school all day. There. I said it. So sue me. It’s true: in spite of my incessant whining about how my kids are always underfoot and driving me crazy with their noise, I do actually kind of like having them – both of them – around.
Am I seriously the only who feels this way?
*This piece 1st published August 2013
18 Comments
I just wish someone would figure out how to get rid of this humidity.
Less humidity makes everything better…
I can understand both sides of the spectrum and I don’t even have a school aged child yet. I’m looking forward to being a “soccer mom” and an active member of the PTA clique…but I don’t know how I’ll do having my babe away from me. My mother in law asked me if I was going to send her to daycare/preschool anytime soon to socialize her and I about fainted at the thought. Besides, I’m a stay at home mom…what in the heck would I call myself if I sent her away?!
I kept my son in preschool for the first few months after my daughter was born. WILL NEVER LIVE DOWN THE GUILT. =(
I did get a lot of sleep, though… perhaps it really was a good thing, as I am not a very nice person when sleep-deprived.
But I still feel guilty.
Loved that post! Jill (Scary Mommy) and I went to college together. My dorm room was next to Jeff’s (who was her boyfriend and later–her husband). She gave me my first taste of blogging in 2010 as a guest blogger one time before I even had my own blog. I was an addict right away.
Anyway, so glad to be connected via Jenny. Jenny and I met in the cast of Listen to Your Mother. The blogging world is small!
It is indeed – I’m so excited to virtually meet you!
I’m currently reading your post on how to blog without annoying your friends and family. Not that that’s an issue for me or anything…
Oh, I remember those days well – particularly the homework/project hell. Nowadays, I send mine off to college – where I feel useless and un-needed since he’s gone and not asking for help (at least not with schoolwork). And yeah, I miss the hell out of him while he’s gone.
Well, I’m not worried, because my children are both going to live with me forever. They told me so.
I’m torn on this one. I have to get up early every day during the summer anyway (office job), but the return of homework and all those activities (I’m on the PTO board) is daunting. My kids do not play wonderfully together (the oldest–also ADHD–is so screen-addicted that I think he may need therapy, so that’s ALL he wants to do, and he whines when he can’t). Sending them to school where they can interact with kids not their siblings is appealing. Just reading this and remembering all the things that are looming in two weeks is giving me an anxiety attack.
Whoops. Didn’t mean to give you an anxiety attack. Uhhhh… misery loves company? 😉
I was looking forward to the school starting so much, up until the school called and was like, “we still need your daughter’s birth certificate, the one from the state, not the one they gave you when you gave birth, and it won’t get here in time via mail, so your daughter can’t do Pre-K with us this year.” And I was like, “I’m leaving now to drive down to get it.” It’s an hour drive one way, and I took all 3 kids with me, unshowered, hair unbrushed. I got it to them before the day was over. My youngest daughter can start Pre-K this year making it the first year I’ll have all my kids in school for once, and back in March, I camped out at 3 AM to get her that freaking slot like really they are trying to duck out of it? That’s when I remembered… As much as I do totally loathe the morning chaos of waking peacefully sleeping kids up, running the gauntlet of dressing and grooming 3 kids, figuring out breakfast and lunch and trying with all my might to get them to school on time, I also really really really just hate talking to the school. They are overgrown meanieheads.
Damn. We just registered today and it took about 20 minutes. My son’s school is ON. TOP. OF. IT.
I’m pretty sure you just ripped this from my brain. I most dread the lunches fo sho, but I also miss the bustle. I’ve been a work at home mom for almost a decade, and although I need them in school to be productive, I miss the noise a bit, and the laughter. I guess I miss them. What the hell is wrong with me???? 🙂 Great piece. I shared and am extra tired today so I am imagining some serious leg humping.
Thanks for sharing!! xoxo
I have a full time job so my alarm is set for the butt-crack of dawn year-round but I’m with you on the homework and lunch making thing. I could really do without those things……
Ugh. I am SOOOOO thankful to work from home and have freedom from the year-round alarm clock. SO, SO thankful! xo
Bwhahaha! My husband and I also bribe our kids for “extra time” at bedtime! That is how I get so many awesome foot rubs! 😉
Alllll the smart parents are doing it. 😉