School Is Out!

Life is full of irony. We want our children to be healthy and grow, but when they do, we lament that they grew up too fast! We coax and discipline our eaters into eating, and we sigh with exasperation when they're asking for food AGAIN! We cry when we want another baby so desperately, and we cry when we make the startling discovery that we're expecting another one "too soon"! (Or maybe no one else ever had that problem) We look forward, with great anticipation, to a date night with no children in tow, and when they all leave home we'll gaze sadly around at the empty nest! (Or so they say) And, we also do this: in August we write blog posts like this http://bethany-aboutmyfathersbusiness.blogspot.com/2014/08/getting-used.html?m=1 and in May we write posts that are quite the opposite!

I guess my Mom's old saying holds true - "As a rule, man's a fool. When it's hot, he wants it cool. When it's cool, he wants it hot. Always wanting what is not!"

I've been going around for the last couple of weeks with this grey cloud hanging over my head. In big, block letters the cloud read "I JUST DREAD SCHOOL BEING OUT!" The man in the house was very sympathetic and helpful when I explained the reason for the dreary, grey cloud. He listened to me read the big, block letters and then he gave me some very helpful advice. "Just stop dreading it!" I believe was the exact quote.

I can't say that I listened very well. I kinda shoved the whole deal into a corner and set out to enjoy the last days of peace and quiet to the fullest! But, here we are, last day of school. Ready or not here comes the days of bored children and cooking lunch every day and taking everyone along everwhere you go and settling twice as many fusses and cleaning up 4 times as many messes......

Wow. I feel like a really bad mother saying all this. You probably think I have terrible children and wonder if I love them at all?! Really, I don't have terrible children, and I do love them. The problem is this: School imposes a schedule - you have to get out the door at a certain time, you have to pack a certain kind of lunches, you have to pick the children back up at a certain time, the children have certain things to be done after school, you have to get to bed at a decent hour.... No school means No Schedule.

"Oh, that's easy!" you say. "MAKE a schedule!" you say. "Have some goals for the summer." you say. And I nod my head. "Yes, a schedule," nod nod. "Some goals, yes indeed." But, when you're gone I shake my head. "Sure! MAKE a schedule. Have some goals. Go for it. I did that last summer too, right?!" You see, what you don't understand is this: I don't do good with self-imposed schedules. They last for....oh, I don't know, 3 days? A week? And then I start saying, "I don't HAVE to do this! Last night was a late night, today we're not going to do this." And the next day I say, "Oh, big deal. It doesn't really matter if we do this, we're going away this afternoon anyway...." It all goes down hill from there. Til evening, when I look at the wreck of a house and I'm tired and somebody's wanting a snack and somebody else is tattling and another one doesn't know what to do and I hold my head and say, "This is so silly! There is no reason I need to feel like this!"

So, all you wonderful, school-is-out-loving-mothers, what is the answer? Tell me all your helpful tips for summer vacation! Email me, message me, comment to me, call me - I'm all ears!