There are 8.5 days until summer. Make that 8. My kids
give me the countdown regularly. They are gleeful. To them summer means no
homework, more time to play, mom eases the electronics restrictions, and warm
weather. They can hardly wait. I know my teacher friends feel the same way.
They are part of the countdown. The kids are restless making learning and
teaching nearly impossible. I know this because I helped out in Audrey’s class
last week. I was only there for 45 minutes helping with reading groups and I
almost went crazy. How hard can it be to get six 8-year olds to sit still for 10
minutes to take turns reading a story? Nearly impossible…I could never teach.
Bless those teachers.
I don’t have the same warm, exciting feelings about
summer. Matter of fact, the mere mention of the word makes my heart race, my
sweat glands flip to overdrive and my respirations increase. Don’t judge me. I
know there are those of you who welcome summer with open arms. You love the
lack of schedule and the ability to hang out more with your kids. That is
awesome. I love my kids. I really do. But I find the balance of school and the
chance for them to spend time with their friends and for me to get a moment
either to sleep off the night shift or have a coffee in peace works pretty well
around here. It makes things a little less crazy.
I feel like summer is just waiting around the corner,
taunting me. I am not sure how it is all going to go down. I have June pretty
well figured out but that leaves two entire months. I only get my work schedule
a month at a time which makes it nearly impossible to line up a babysitter for
nights I work back to back. All these details are irrelevant to my kids .They
want to know what I have planned. What exciting adventures we will be embarking
on and who we will be spending our time with because most of the time, I am not
enough. I don’t think they will be very excited to learn that mom is going to
be spending some time in bed and as for exciting adventures…well, I need one of
those parents who embrace summer to stop by and line those up for me.
We did have the wild idea to try backpacking rather than
car camping. I am not sure if we will pull it together to execute it this
summer but we are going to try. My friend told me her parents tried it with
them…once. I hope it isn’t the kind of thing that sounds really great but the
reality is a little less awesome. Like running. I took both my kids on a 1.5
mile run last week. Mason has expressed some interest so we have gone a
few times. We made Audrey try it with us last week. It sounded great in theory
but when we got to the top of our street, she was already tired and complaining. I
still dragged her through the rest of the run. I was quite sure someone was
going to look out and call child protective services but that was last week and
nobody has come to my door. I am hopeful that since backpacking feels like more
of an adventure we might have more success. Right?
I know these ages are fleeting. My kids have an innocence
and excitement that, at times, can be contagious. I want to embrace and enjoy
it but to do that this summer…it is going to take a lot of coffee. My awesome
friend who is a teacher told me she sent up a prayer that summer wouldn’t kill
me. Amen sister. Here we go.
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