Please pray for my kids this week … They are in mourning, having just realized that their four-day school weeks are over. This week and the week after, they have to go to school for a full five days in a row. GASP! Two straight weeks of reading, writing and ‘rithmetic … Until Columbus Day Indigenous People’s Day, that is (identified as a staff in-service day, not really in observance of a national holiday). Then it’s a whole three and a half weeks before the next day off (a second staff in-service day) and another two full weeks before the Thanksgiving break. I honestly don’t know if they will survive! [In case you are new to my blog, please insert sarcastic tone here.]
Around here, school begins the Monday before Labor Day, which means after four days of school, the kids are awarded both Friday and Monday off for Labor Day weekend, followed the next week by a mid-week break for Rosh Hashana and then another day off for Yom Kippur the week after that. Talk about easing them in! For the first full month of school, four-day weeks are the norm.
I know what you’re thinking … Slow your roll, Lauren! It’s only September and you’re already talking about Thanksgiving and school breaks. But I’m a planner and need to know these things in advance so I can schedule fun activities, like the kids’ dental cleanings, haircuts and flu shots. Also, it’s my passive-aggressive way of complaining that these days off mess with my agenda. I’m not one to hide my feelings, so I’ll just come out and say it … I have a love/hate relationship with the back to school season. Can anyone else relate?
I love the quiet and solitude that comes with back to school. I love that my kids are out of the house and out of my hair for seven hours every day. I love that Wegman’s and Target are kid-free during the day and the gym is no-nonsense early in the morning. I love that afternoon homework and sports have replaced daily Fortnite and Madden marathons. I love that schedules are in place and bedtimes are reasonable again. I love that I can write without distraction and work on projects that were put on hold over the summer. I love that my time is mine again, and yes, I love the cooler fall weather, too.
What don’t I love? Pull up a chair! I’ve written about it in the past — here, here and here, as well as here and here, among others — and I’m sure I’ll continue to bitch write about it until the boys graduate, so why stop now? This year’s list of top back to school dislikes includes: the inevitable last-minute school supplies shopping trip to Staples (tell me again why supply lists can’t be sent home with schedules?), the required $125 trigonometry calculator to replace last year’s $100 algebra calculator, the weekly homework/studying fights and rushed dinners due to sports practices, the endless stream of fundraising and volunteering requests, the inescapable picture day debacle and the two (yes, two!) back to school nights — both of which I skipped (thank you, social anxiety).
But what I dislike the most about back to school time is the morning routine. The thankless job of waking my two grumpy teenage boys and getting them out the door on-time, Monday through Friday, has always been pure torture for me. I scream, they scream and no one is getting ice cream. Sadly, those stressful thirty minutes often set a negative tone for the rest of my day — but not anymore. Thanks to my loving (and possibly insane) husband, I am no longer “in-charge” of the morning mayhem. He is; I’m not even home! I leave the house at 5AM for an early workout while he gets the kids up and out the door. It’s glorious for me and I honestly think it’s working for everyone else, too. Because my husband is less of a micro-manager than I am, the boys have become more self-sufficient in the process. That, or they’ve been going to school hungry with unbrushed teeth and dirty underwear — I don’t really know. What I do know is that I’m a lot less nasty in the morning, my husband gets quality (okay, extra) time with the boys and the kids don’t hate me as much (at least not until they come home from school). I call that a win-win-win.
At this rate, my love for back to school time might be slowly outweighing my hatred, one small piece at a time. For me, that’s progress … and enlightenment.
– LJDT
