“No more pencils, no more books. No more teacher’s dirty looks.”
Does anyone else remember singing that ditty at the end of the school year? Not the heavy metal, Alice Cooper version. Just the sing-song, nursery-rhyme-like kids’ version. No? Maybe it was a Long Island thing. Anyway …
Monday was our last day of school (1o days overdue, thanks to all the winter snow closings) and it was just like our first day –and the 180 days in between … marked by slow-moving kids, a rushed schedule and a frustrated mom. Oh, and yelling. Lots of yelling. If I had a dollar for every time I screamed, “Hurry up! You’re going to be late for school!” I’d have … $182. Actually, I’d probably have more than that since some days I had to say it two, three, even four times before my kids picked up their pace. Did I mention that I was a frustrated mom on school mornings?
But that’s all in the past. School is out and summer vacation has begun. Lazy days here we come … no more alarm clocks, no more rushing, no more yelling, right? Not quite.
Tuesday, the first day of summer vacation, was marked by a fierce irony. For 8-1/2 months, I had to pry my children out of bed in order to get them to school on-time. But on Tuesday, they did it all by themselves … and before 7:15 A.M. Did I mention this was the first day of summer break? WTF?! There was still some yelling that morning, but at least not about being late.
Wednesday, day #2, was a bit better. A 7:30 A.M. start for the boys with less yelling by me.
Thursday, day #3, was the best yet. The boys didn’t come out of their rooms until after 8 A.M. It was a beautiful thing. I have no idea how long they had actually been awake before venturing downstairs, but I don’t really care. I had my morning alone time and they had more pleasant dispositions. Win-win. Fingers crossed Friday brings more of the same.
But all good things must come to an end. Camp starts next week so we’ll be back on a schedule. No more sleeping in. No more watching ESPN during a leisurely paced breakfast. No more dawdling. For the next three weeks, it’s back to setting alarm clocks and yelling, “Hurry up!” Ah, good times. I can already feel the frustration building.
Serenity now!
– LJDT
Can’t just be a Long Island thing, although I do know the song. And yup, there is that lovely lull between end of school and camps/vacations where you wake up when you wake up , and it’s warm and sunny and there’s time to breathe and utilize the morning properly. It seems to me, that everybody is just a little bit lighter in the heart. Maybe that’s exponential to a tan? Love your blogs, Lauren.