Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Back to School

I used to judge parents who looked forward to school starting.  "What's the matter with them?" I would think.  "Why don't they want to be with their own kids?"

Oh my God, people I judged, I am so sorry.

I love my kids.  The idea of them being away from me breaks my heart.  But it was with great joy that I sent Mary Grace to school this morning, and I will send Claire back next week with even more joy.

We need structure.  I never thought I was the kind of person who needed structure, but I do.  These endless pajama days of doing nothing and watching TV and playing with toys were fun, at first, but one can only do that so long before, seriously, everyone needs to go back to school and work or we're gonna strangle each other.

What's it like in your house?  Do you dread the back to school day or celebrate it?  And does anyone have any suggestions for how I'm going to stay sane this summer?

5 comments:

katshepherd said...

Right there with you, my friend! I was positively ecstatic this morning to put my Girlie on the bus. We've been "off" since December 19th - yikes! Summer will have to involve a day camp of some type - I just need to find the right one...

morganna said...

Yes! Two words -- day camp!

Actually, only for my extrovert who loves people and gets super clingy when not going to school (ie not seeing lots of people) regularly. My introvert gets to stay home in the summer as long as he seems to be enjoying himself/having fun/not being super annoying/clingy.

tracey.becker1@gmail.com said...

We homeschool and even I go crazy over winter break which the kids INSIST on taking so that they're just like "everybody else." DRIVES ME NUTS. Structure is important in our lives. So, make schedules and stick with them. You don't even need to do day camp. You could be the navigator of your own family's "day camp" and organize 2-3 activities a week. That will give them time to still veg out and hang but also a reason for accomplishing tasks on a schedule. Trust me.

A Garden! Plant a garden this summer and make the kids water and weed it. My kids LOVED it this year and fought over who got to pick the most tomatoes. So... maybe not. Another thing to fight over? Then again, we had spaghetti for FREE all summer long...

tracey.becker1@gmail.com said...

Don't you love it when a new person reads your blog and then hijacks the comments? Yeah. Sorry about that. I NEED COFFEE.

Amy said...

Tracey - are you kidding? I love comments! Welcome!! Keep them coming. :) I'd love to have a garden, but I have black thumbs and a yard that won't cooperate. Bummer. I planted over 100 bulbs one year in the front, and like 2 plants grew. It was highly disappointing.

kat & morganna - good idea, I should probably start looking into camps too.