With the summer ending much too quickly, I'm geared up to get my 13 year old son back to school the day after Labor Day. Labor Day comes early this year, and my son thinks it's not fair Most moms are very happy to get the kids back to school. Yes, it's quieter. And yes, it's more peaceful. But I am not looking forward to the school year for a number of reasons, and here they are:
1.Getting Up Early: My son has to catch the bus at 7:40 am. This means getting him up (or starting to get hijm up, actually) at 6:30 am. Way too early for me! I am not a morning person, and my husband works nights so he doesn't get home until between 7:30 am and 8:00am. So it's up to me to get my son up and out on time to catch the bus. He is not a morning person either, so this means at least a half hour of, "Conor, you're going to be late!"!, and, "Conor, you'll miss your bus, and then your dad will have to drive you to school and you know how mad he gets when he has to drive you to school!". Summers have become wonderful since my son has gotten older. He generally stays up a lot later than me, and sleeps in in the morning. I get my rest, and he gets his.
2. Homework: My son doesn't have a great track record for doing his homework,, so it takes both my husband and I to make sure he does it. Of course, sometimes he asks me to help him, and then I get to relive my teenage years and look up maps and the names of the dogs of English Monarchs. Sometimes, it's fun, but usually I'm as bored as he is (but I can't tell him THAT). Homeowrk also means making sure it finds it's way into his backpack. I usually do that when getting him up. Summer means meandering around the net, emailing interesting stories between us. I've learned more about video games than I ever wanted to know, but I have to admit, some of them are pretty good!
3. Dinner on time: During the school year, we're pretty regimented in our time. From 3:10pm to 5pm, Conor is free to do whatever he wants. Then it's homework until dinner at 6pm. Then back to homework, before showering at 9p and in bed by 10pm. Having an hour window for dinner is hard for me, as I suffer from chronic pain that is usually at it's worst just when I have to cook dinner. AND we; have dinner at the table, not in the living room or bedroom in front of the TV or computer. Sometimes it's just nice to order out food at 7p, and go your separate ways.
4. School Shopping: I usually do all my shopping on line, I mean ALL of it. An example are the hair barettes I bought on line recently, paying shipping more than they were worth. I just don't do in store shopping well. Having chronic pain and RSD in my foot means using a scooter and terrorizing the other shoppers with my driving. Plus, shopping for clothes with a 13 year old is not what it was like when he was a toddler. The clothes are more boring and even more expensive. We recently went to Walmart for some clothes for back to school and spent nearly $300! And that was after I ordered most of his school supplies on line from Staples! Give me a credit card and a computer anyday over brick and mortar stores!
5.Most of All: I'LL MISS HIM! My son is quite the talker. He's been that way since the first word he spoke (which was 'Dada', the ingrate). I absolutely love talking to him. He's very smart and can talk about anything, from video games to the drought in the mid-west. He loves to share his knowledge with me, and I thoroughly enjoy lstening to him. We've talked about so many things this summer- safe sex, gay rights,the Olympics and oh, so much more. Can you tell I'm really, really proud of my son? And I'll miss him terribly come September. Next summer, he's going back to Space Camp for the third summer. It will be so much fun hearing about his adventures when he gets back. Now THAT will be a great summer!
