It's ok, you can be happy about back to school.

This is it. A week before school starts. A week until structure, dinners as a family at the dining room table, regular bed times, and children at their desks.  Back to early mornings scrambling to get ready, making lunches and bickering to get homework finished before playing outside. Back to reality.

Also, back to me being able to get some damned work done! Back to a clean house, and me being able to stop in at Muddy Waters for a Caramel Apple Cider, and back to being able to concentrate on my task at hand rather than being interrupted by “mom, look at meeee!” and then turning back to have completely lost my train of thought. That is maddening by this time of year. Summer is for kids and families, but I'm ready for a little ME time. 

This family has had an awesome summer. And the summer went by way too fast. We went to some great picnics, and went on some little road trips, and we spent some real quality time together. And I’m going to miss hitting the beach, and rarely rushing, and not fighting about getting homework done. But all good things must come to an end, and everything in moderation and all that jazz. It’s time.

Moms have their calendars starred and asterisked for the coming day. But there will be that one mom that says “Oh I’m kind of sad”. And guess what. I don’t believe you. Well, I believe you a little, because I'm a little sad that the beginning of summer is over. Yeah, remember the beginning of summer? When everyone was still freshly excited for all the mayhem and the kids were so distracted by their freedom that they didn’t even fight (or we were full of the patience that we could employ moderating techniques) and we still had money for camp and distractions? Yeah well, that time is long gone, mama, so just get over it.

Now granted, I have a certain perspective. I run my business from home. Where I live is where I work. There is no escape from my job, either one of them. I’m a creative director, and I’m a homemaker. Oh, and I’m a mom. It’s all right here in this house.  So for those of you that leave your house for your job, this might not apply.

But in case you’re one of those moms, that is claiming that back to school is going to negatively impact your precious time with your little loveys (and sorta makes me feel guilty for timing the count-down to the second), I’m going to break it down for you. Here’s how back to school is going to positively effect your life:

Teachers are great at getting kids to do what they are supposed to do. They are a great teammate in the war on laziness and inactivity. Oh, and they teach your kid. So that, you know, your kid doesn’t walk thru life as a dummy. Summer is fun, but the amount of stuff that your kid forgets from the previous year is kind of staggering. I don’t know the actual statistics because it’s still summer and I’m too lazy to look them up for you. But for those of you that are motivated for summer to go on, and on, you can look them up and report back.

By this time, structure is out the window. At the beginning of summer it was a joyful freeness and a break from the barriers of rules. Now it’s….a free for all. Remember what it was like to have a regular bed time for the kids so you could actually spend some time with your spouse? Or if you don’t have a significant other, remember what it was like to watch night time TV with a glass of wine and it was because you were actually unwinding and not because you NEEDED it or your head might spontaneously combust?

Don’t get me wrong, come November I’m going to yearn for flip flops and pedicures, and just getting up and everyone throwing on a bathing suit, and eating peanut butter and Nutella on the beach. But right now, if I see one more wet bathing suit on the carpet I’m going to get hysterical.

Stay tuned for my blog in June called “Holy Mary, Mother of God I can’t wait for sleeping late and eating on the beach and just hanging out in my bathing suit”.