Please help me welcome the fabulous Paige Morgan from the popular mommy blog, Slightly Off Balance. We are honored she joined us today for Guest Blogging Tuesday. Enjoy!
My son comes home from school every day and gives me the official count on how many days of first grade he has left. I ooh and aah with him and tell him how excited I am. I then play the part of good mommy (because sometimes it really is nothing more than an act) and remind him that he will still need to read and do his timed math tests over the summer to keep his skills sharp.
But little does he know… I am counting down the days with more anticipation than he is! I yearn for MY freedom from HIS homework, HIS alarm clock and HIS strict bedtime. There are less school projects, fundraisers, volunteer “opportunities” (can you say marketing spin?) and schedules to coordinate.
After working all day, making dinner (okay, that’s kind of a lie – my husband usually cooks) and begging my children to eat three bites of dinner, I am exhausted! My brain is too fried for complicated issues like “If Sally as 77 cents, how many 5 cent pencils, 15 cent notebooks and 25 cent yo-yos can she buy?”. Where is Sally’s mother?! Why does Sally have to figure this out?! Where does Sally shop to get these prices?! But I digress, back to my exhaustion…
Yes, I am too exhausted to figure out Sally’s spending habits and read my son’s two-page story to make sure he answered the questions right. Ironically, though, I can tear through 200 pages of a book of my choosing after I put the kids to bed.
And therein lies the kicker – kids bedtime versus ours. My kids our asleep by 8:00 so that they are well-rested to get up at 7:00 am. Parents on the other hand, put the kids to bed, finish cleaning the kitchen, do some more work, do a load of laundry, lay out lunch bags and backpacks for the next day and still try to watch a show, read a magazine or have some “me” time before they go to bed. Yes, I would like to go to sleep at 8:00 pm, 7:30 would be even dreamier, but when would we get everything done. So the kids go to sleep at 8:00 and wake up at 7:00 am – that’s eleven hours of sleep! I can’t even imagine what I would be like with eleven hours of sleep… coherent, nice, patient. But I am none of those things because I go to bed at 11:00 pm and get up at 6:30 am to have my act together before my son wakes up at 7:00 am from his eleven hours of peaceful slumber. So I get 7.5 hours on a good night, if neither of my kids wake me up – which incidentally is rare! Last night my two kids pulled their favorite tag team trick to ensure I was awake from 3:30 am to 6:30 am. I swear there should be a Mommy Punk’d show where the night vision video camera catches me shuffling back and forth between my son’s room and my three-year-old daughter’s room, half asleep, with the look of desperation in my eye.
But when my son is not in school… ah, just the words are bliss… I can sleep in. I can sleep until 7:30 or even 8:00 am depending on my conference call schedule. My son still gets up early, but I don’t have to be awake to nag him to hurry up, get dressed, eat breakfast, and find his library books. He can get himself a snack and watch cartoons while I get that really hard sleep from 5:00 am to 7:00 am. You know what I am talking about, the mouth open, drooling on the pillow, ‘exhaustion may not kill me today’ kind of sleep!
Yes, the school year is coming to an end and my son’s first grade journey is almost over. But as with most journeys, the last few miles feel the longest. The month of May is the monthly equivalent to the 5:00 witching hour in my house. At 5:00 every evening my kids melt down. It’s almost dinner time, so they’re hungry, they are worn out from the day and it is the time when I need them to behave the most – so they melt. May is end of the year chaos. We have end of the year parties for t-ball, end of the year parties for my daughter’s preschool and my son’s school. We have end of the year teacher appreciation gifts to make, buy and stress out about. I am the least crafty person IN THE WORLD, yet always end up helping with end of the year gifts that require glue guns, mod podge and other intimidating crafting supplies. I think we should start appreciating our teachers in advance, before we’re too tired to do it thoughtfully! But I am happy to report, the picture collage is done and delivered for preschool, the decoupage vase will be given to the first grade teacher on Thursday, the pictures have been sent for the t-ball awards and the cupcakes were made for Open House. I volunteered at the end of the year party, the May field trip, the school fundraiser and attended the preschool picnic. Did I do all this single-handedly? Not even close! Did I have some small part in each of these? I like to think so. The month of May almost killed me, but I survived. Wait, the day isn’t over yet… it still might!
So with just a few events, early mornings and bedtime threats left, I am thrilled to know that our break is almost here. I guess my son is excited too.
How do you feel about the end of the school year? Click on the number above the post to comment!
Slightly Off-Balance (http://slightlyoffbalanceblog.com) is a blog written by Paige Morgan, a working mother, who strives for balance through writing, humor, friendships and cocktails.
HI Paige! Fantastic post! I am counting down the days like my kids because I live for summer. And though my oldest is only in kindergarten, I am tired of packing lunches, dragging him out of bed, end of year projects and keeping track of who needs what on which day! I want to sleep in and play at the park and not care. Now, check back with me in a month and let’s see if I am counting down the days they get back in school – lol! Thanks for dropping by at 4badmommies.
Hi Paige!
And welcome to 4BadMommies! Fabulous post! And very timely. Here in NY school goes to the end of June, so I’m just starting the craziness of final exams and eighth grade graduation. (We also have birthdays on June 1, 3, &4 to add to the mayhem!)
Oddly enough, for years my children went to a summer camp that started at 8:30 a.m. which required I get them out of the house even earlier than they had to leave to catch the school bus! Since I work from home, I’m happy to have the push to get me out of bed and moving.
But boy do I LOVE the times when I’ve just met my deadline and my children have no activities and we all can sleep in – which usually involves everyone sleeping and me reading a book since my internal clock seems to be permanently set at 7:00 a.m. But I enjoy the quiet time!
Have a great summer!
What a fantastic post, Paige! And welcome!
Boy, can I relate to your every word! This school year was especially hard from my son who had to adjust to Junior High. The changes from 5th to 6th grade were brutal! His last week of school was horrific (mine are already out for the summer) mostly because for some reason his school felt the kids needed a final week to rival a college schedule. My son had THREE finals on the SAME day. Who does that? I mean, is that really a necessary skill to learn – massive cluster tests – in the SIXTH grade? I didn’t pick up the skill of managing that kind of schedule until I was in college, and even then it almost killed me.
Only good news is it’s over.Yay!
Thanks for guest blogging – and enjoy your summer!
Hi Paige,
I am so ready for school to be out and to be free from my children’s schedules. And at our house it isn’t just school schedules that evaporate that first week in June. It’s Sunday and Wednesday religious education classes and a whole host of extra-curricular activities. Summer isn’t exactly lazy around my house but the day does start closer to 10 am than to 6 am. And the schedule is different (camps, family reunions, SAT test days, summer jobs, etc.) and different is sort of a break, right?
Great job Paige!
Thank you so much for having me over! I agree with Regina, by the end of summer, we’ll be writing posts celebrating our kids going back to school!
Until I took my leave of absence for teaching, I would literally tremble with excitement over the approach of summer.
Because not ONLY was I able to avoid the kids’ homework, and the volunteer schedule, the craft obligations, the early wake-ups; but I was also set free from my own 120 students and essays and letters of recommendation and faculty meetings and office hours and parent emails and and and….
It was glorious.
Over the years, I’ve discovered that the summers get EVEN BETTER as the kids grow older.
They can make their own plans, organize their own fun, feed themselves (if I sleep in), put themselves to bed (if I fall asleep early)…
The only trade off is that they aren’t my babies anymore. Which is a big one. And I miss my little ones a lot.
So soak it up while you can. And good luck getting a bit more sleep (or a few more hours of guilt-free reading after the kids are in bed).
You deserve it.
Am LOVIN’ this blog!
Can’t believe I never ran across it before.
Paige sent me here, and it is all kinds of awesome.
The truth? I LOVE reading the truth.
We are human, not perfect…but that is OK. We should all stop the act of loving every minute of mommying, cuz it’s not true. Not for me, anyway.
Great post.
Love love love your mini-rant on the math problem! Very funny.
Hey Julie!
They do grow up fast. Mine are 13 (14 on the 4th), 17 and 19. They pretty much do their own things at this point. I still need to drive the youngest around but she goes to sleep away camp for most of the summer. My oldest is in college through the summer. Only my son will be home and he drives which meanes he isn’t around much. It is VERY queit around here in the summer. And as much as I enjoy the ability to write long into the night, I do miss my babies.
Great post! I can’t imagine what is in store for my now 4 year old. I am already looking forward to summers yet to come. lol
HI Alexandra! I am so happy you are joining us here! I love your blog too – also found it from Paige. We mommies know where to find the party!
HI Optimistic Mom! I have a four year old too, and I think it’s going to be really hard to let him go off to school. Course, I may stop crying after a few hours in a quiet house by myself and change my tune! We shall see -thanks so much for stopping by!
Alexandra,
The pic with your post is awesome!
Loved your post! I cannot wait for the end of the school year! With the extra snow days, my 3 will be in school until 6/28 – the latest last day ever. I’m looking forward to a more relaxed schedule and to having them all to myself – all day. Funny thing is, at winter break I can’t wait for them to go back – but in the summertime, I just want them to be with me. Must be the warm sunshine-y days that make me more patient and them less bicker-y!