Is it time for school yet?
by Cheryl, posted on August 31st, 2010 in Parenting
I ran into the mom of another soon-to-be first-grader today at the park.
We were leaving so we just did the usual “Hi, how are you” stuff.
I said something about how I’d see her in two weeks when school starts, and then, at the same time, I said “Summer’s been so long” while she said “Summer went so fast.”
It’s all in the perspective. And that perspective? Is different when you have a toddler.
We are limited in what we can do. Mostly, our life revolves around The Nap. He needs that afternoon snooze and I try my best to make sure he gets it. We’ve pushed it an hour or so but it’s left us with a cranky guy later on.
Play dates need to be in the morning or late afternoon. We can’t really have them at our house because X and Sawyer share a room, and I can’t have loud kids during The Nap time.
Sawyer and Sage love to swim, but it’s impossible to take X to the pool by myself. The child has no fear. None. We’ll be happily splashing around in the wading pool, and then suddenly he’ll spot his brother and sister in the big pool. He’ll climb out and race over to the side of the big pool with me in pursuit. I’ll grab him and we’ll go in the big pool together.
We’ll sit on the stairs and he’ll be pretty happy – until he gets out and runs along the side of the pool deck while I do the defensive shuffle in the water, back and forth, back and forth, trying to keep him from jumping in.
And while this is certainly a lovely workout for me, it’s just a bit stressful.
If David is not traveling then sometimes I can escape to the pool with the older two kids during X’s nap time. But frankly, there are many days I use it as my time to catch up on twitter, Facebook, Google Reader and Skype chats, to say nothing of this blog and The Red Dress Club.
The kids are perfectly happy to watch SpongeBob and the Last Avatar and Fanboy and Chum Chum. Which is easy for me at the moment, but leaves me feeling guilty and lazy.
Sawyer is supposed to be drawing a picture and writing in his journal at least once a week. He somehow “lost” his journal a few weeks ago. I get a huge argument from him when I ask him to do the task. The past few times he’s tried to get around it by writing sentences such as “I like bats.” Which was fine when he first started reading last year but not so much now. When I encourage him to write more, he starts crying and the other day yelled, “IT’S SUMMER! Give me a break!”
As if.
I’m ready to get back into the routine of school. Well, I say I am, until I have to deal with getting two kids up, fed, dressed and out the door while toddler wrangling. When I have to wake X up from The Nap to get Sawyer from school. When we’re arguing over homework and rushing off to soccer practice.
Then I will wish for the lazy days of doing nothing. My guess is the kids will, too.
Were you ready for summer to be over? Was summer all you hoped it would be?
Diana Says:
Janine Says:
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Cheryl Reply:
August 31st, 2010 at 9:41 am
Yes. It’s so much easier dealing with other people’s kids, isn’t it?
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