Oh, Did School Start?
I meant to do something fun with the kids to celebrate the fact that they don’t go to school, but I’ve been on Michigan time, I guess. Apparently, Columbus kids went back to school yesterday, but I don’t have any little school kids around me all the time to remind me of these things like I did in Michigan. My nieces and nephews and little friends up north don’t start until after Labor Day, so I’ve been thinking ahead to that day. Usually, I spend the first day of school sighing with contentment and thinking about all of the running around that I would have to do as a school mom, with the lunches and the schedules and the homework and the talking to the teachers and the feeling like I have to volunteer to do crap (not that I would volunteer, I would just feel like I had to and then I’d feel bad that I didn’t and that kind of guilt weighs on a person) and the talking to other parents whom I don’t know but whose kids want to come to my house and eat my food. I only like to feed my friends’ kids. I’m suspicious of strangers’ kids and their need to eat. But I didn’t even stop to think about it on the first day of school this year and now I feel like I missed my chance to really revel in the homeschooling. Because, very soon after the first day’s contented sighing and whatnot, comes a day or two here and there when I think that maybe all of that running around that school moms have to do is pretty well worth it for 6 or 7 kid-free hours. Pretty. Well. Worth it.
Liberty just reminded me that I’m 10 minutes late for breakfast, according to our new fall schedule (breakfast at 8:15 sharp!) so I told her I’m going to put her in school if she doesn’t shut it. And then I said, “The other kids in the neighborhood got up at 6:15 and got on the bus with a Pop-Tart, so you should just be glad you got to sleep this long and that you’re getting a hot breakfast when I’m done with my blog!” She responded with, “What kind of Pop-Tart?” *sigh*
August 28th, 2008 at 9:10 am
Our tradition for the start of school is to go to COSI. We’re heading there in an hour or so. It’s always better to see the big summer exhibit when it’s not so crowded. (COSI is so overstimulating for me that I have to approach it this way.) C’mon along if you want.
August 28th, 2008 at 9:31 am
Yeah, I think poptarts might whet Noah’s schooling appetite, too. Right now I’ve got him upstairs getting me a Diet Coke (with ice) and so I’m not telling him about pop tarts because I need the kid here to fetch and carry. (Madison is listening to Chantilly Lace AGAIN.)
August 28th, 2008 at 9:34 am
You could have a not back to school party. Just with your friends, of course, so you wouldn’t have to feed any stranger’s kids.
Being a school mom sucks in so many ways, but sometimes I sit and listen to the quiet and close my eyes and sigh. Then I get a hot cuppa something, and sit on the couch, and think, wow, isn’t this great? And then I start to freak out about all the stuff I have to do.
I’m not going to do any stuff tomorrow (our first official day for all kids.) I’m going to stay in my pjs all day, lie in bed and watch Paul Giamatti portray John Adams, and eat chocolate covered cherries. As long as I can stand it, anyway.
August 28th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Actually at Columbus Public Schools you wouldn’t even have to supply the pop tart-They are happy to feed kids, a start your day off right, with a pop tart, chocolate milk and some the sugar cereal of your choice-ALL FOR FREE, oh and I think they offer some orange drink with that. All that dye and white sugar for free!! Our tax $$$ at work. I bet after a breakfast like that my kids would sit really attentively and soak up a wealth of useful knowledge and that good food would stay with them until their purchased fried, salty lunch. Glad they care so much about the health and well being of our diabetic, obese children. OK I am done now…..
August 28th, 2008 at 10:47 am
You throw it in Lib’s face how good she’s got it. Tell her she could be like you when you were little and were thrown on the bus with bed head and a half toasted Downyflake Waffle in hand.
Why the frick couldn’t we have EGGO??
August 28th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
You have no idea how much I envy you right now. And apparently the way this year is starting I will continue to envy you because not even the hours of kid-free time are worth all the shit I have to do to make that happen.
August 28th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
LMAO Kristen!
My kids were so disappointed when I told them we wouldn’t be buying lunch at all this year.
August 29th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
It’s the honesty, the comedic (is that a word?) honesty that shines through in your writing that I love. That is why I keep coming back when I should be doing the laundry. I love humor, it has gotten me through raising six boys with part of my mind still intact.
I have to admit though and this is the truth…I forget there is school, it’s true. One day I saw these kids walking down the street in Upper Arlington with back packs on and I thought to myself “I wonder where they’re going with those backpacks?” and then a few seconds later I totally cracked up…Of course they are going to school, DUH!
Having been on both sides of the fence, I suffered through at least 18 years or more of having kids in school, (I just can’t do the math at the moment) I have the experience to comment on both sides and I will take the homeschool life any day. I would rather have my kids with me 24/7 than jump through school hoops. I won’t even go there because there is not enough room on your comment page for all I can think of that is better about hsing.
I don’t care about what my kids think, I drive by school in session and breathe a heavenly sigh of relief that hsing came into my life.
August 29th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Oh, and one more thing, You know those people who say well you don’t know my kid, I could NEVER hs him because…
I have that kid and I did hs him and he and I are both still alive and well and he still lives here. (and he’s still difficult but waaaaaay better now) And he’s 20 so it can be done.