‘Tis the season for all of social media to light up with joyous cheers of parents sending their children back to school. Somedays it seems I’m the only one not cheering. I hate school and I am dreading the end of summer that will come too quickly next week.
What’s Better Than Summer Friends?
I’m not sure what it is, maybe the fact that my kids get along pretty well so the fighting is minimum in our house. Maybe it’s the fact that they are all pretty self-sufficient this summer so we have equally enjoyed long, lazy days with little but our imaginations to occupy us. Maybe it is the fact that no matter how old I get, I am not a morning person and it seems neither are 2 of my 3 children so waking for school sucks every single day of the 185 days we have to do it.
Whatever the cause, I am not the mom cheering about the return to schedules and sweater weather and pumpkin spice lattes. I’m the one crying in the corner, clutching my bathing suit and flip flops, hoping for just one more day of sun and sand. I treasure these days of summer togetherness. They are more precious with each passing year because I know as my babies grow, these days are numbered for sure. Soon enough, I’ll be alone, doddering around my house all summer wondering what I used to do all day to pass the time. Maybe that’s why I hate it so much, because the beginning of school means another year closer to the days they move farther from me.
I know the reality is they will all go back, almost happily, next week and our world will speed up and roll right along at its school-year-break-neck pace and all will be fine. We’ll have festivals and holidays and birthday and trips. It will all go so quickly that soon enough we’ll be here, ending August, again.
But even knowing it will all be fine and that good things lay ahead, I just can’t help but wish we had another day, or week or even month of summer days where it seems going slow and being a family are the only thing on the to-do list.
