By: Tanya Pimental
As Memorial Day approaches this weekend, I find myself in the same state of disconnect as I do each year at this time. It’s now when I start to be less attentive to making school lunches, daily reading reminders, and bedtimes. The warmer weather and the added hours of daylight tend to make it harder to keep track of what time it is and, quite frankly, I often need reminding of the day of the week.
I may be in the minority, but I wish school ended the Friday before Memorial Day and then they had off until the Wednesday after Labor Day. This would be the ideal summer vacation. We could spread out our summer bucket list a bit and not get bogged down with fitting it all in. After this weekend, I long to not have to rush folks out the door and make sure their homework is signed. The truth of the matter is that we will be racing onto school grounds to avoid a tardy slip for the next three weeks.
Here is the kicker though, year after year, the kids have an end of year project due in June. I’m all for a good project and love working together to get crafty. But, teachers out there, please hear this plea. Make the last project due in May! No one wants to be working on Science Fair projects after school or making Habitat Dioramas. We want to be outside in the fresh air without a care about what is for dinner. I am done making sure everyone’s showered and in bed at a reasonable time.
To give you a better idea of our current state, we started off the year with three new lunch boxes and a few old ones mixed in. As of last week, we have somehow managed to lose all but one Ninja Turtles lunch box that my preschool daughter is now toting to lunch bunch. If the other two need lunch, then we steal dad’s lunch box or use a paper bag. I’ve really been pushing the buying of lunch with encouraging words like, “Try it! You may like it!” Even though I know they will likely just not eat lunch and in turn get a doughnut after school followed by endless snacks until dinner which they won’t eat because they are too full from the snacks they needed because they hated the school lunch offering.
Kudos to those moms out there still sending inspiring notes in the lunch boxes and those still full of steam for the A-Z days of random attire to create school spirit. Here’s hoping my kids and those around us remember how prompt we were at the start of the school year and how much more on the ball we were when we didn’t have summer just beyond our reach. I’m starting to compile our summer bucket list and, hopefully, the allure of beach days ahead will pick up my spirits.
Honestly speaking, I feel like any school days after this weekend are the demise of my good mom confidence levels. If you too feel this way, don’t feel alone. And when my kids are pouting about having nothing fun to do in a month, I’m going to try really hard not to take back my wish to make summer a few weeks longer.
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