School officially started about a month ago. I can tell because I'm a little more harried, have a lot less money, and am very tired all the time. I thought maybe it was because they were back with all those other germy kids and bringing it home to me. But of late, I'm wondering if it isn't that I'm just tired of running around to "stuff" all the time.
I should have a lot more down time now that school has started. They have enough homework to keep them going at night that I should be able to just rest while they do it all. However, between running to/from cheer practices, games, meetings for all sorts of things school related or college search related, keeping up with the mounds of laundry all week (winter's big clothes vs. summer little clothes isn't helping how many loads I do), lunches, store runs for what is forgotten about until the last minute, etc., I'm really not resting much at all. On top of it, the schools don't seem to care that they've scheduled multiple things on the same night that require me to be in not only 2, but 3 different places in one evening (you'd think being divorced would help with that as you could split up, but not so much sometimes). Last week it was trying to figure out how to be at open house for one of my girls, while getting my other one back home from practice so she could start her homework. Car pooling would have been a really great idea except that all the other moms I knew were at the open house as well. The danger of kids being 3 years apart and in different schools.
However, in 2 weeks, I have the dilemma of 3 events in one night. A "mandatory" parent/student meeting for the upcoming Washington trip that my youngest will be taking. She and I will miss that completely because she also has a Cheer Competition that same night/same time, as well as my oldest being in a concert at her school. Hmmm... which parent goes to which activity? It's always the question, but as my normal readers know... I hate to miss anything my kids do. It's rare that I have to, but there have been occasions where I miss based on logistics and I need to make choices. When making the choice of what to attend, it's really hard because you don't want one child to feel you are favoring the other or the others activities. It would be so nice if sports teams and schools got together with the calendars so the parents didn't have miss anything. I know that's not realistic though as I only have two kids. What about the parents with larger families.
I guess the good news for my kids is that I do suffer over these choices. I know parents that are so engrossed with their own activities for themselves, that the kids activities aren't even a part of their choice... it's just "oh well, I have this other thing to go to so I'll miss it". I recognize that some things are not preventable, but I really don't get that as regular occurence. The moment I had my first child, my life became all about their activities. What I might want to do on a regular/routine basis was completely put on hold. And... I'm ok with that. In my mind that's how it should be. When my kids graduate from High School and are away at college, that's when I can do those things. I'll have all the time in the world to do them and will probably be sitting around wishing I didn't have time again. I'll be missing them so much I'll wish I had to run to practice. But, that's still a ways off for me and for now, I'd rather suffer thru all my choices of what to attend, or be tired from all the running vs. having to miss anything. It's worth it to get to enjoy every minute of still having them with me. It's going by so quickly.
PS... I hope I make the right decisions in two weeks. Or at the very least, have my kids understand the ones I do have to make. Wish I had that time turner watch that Hermione used in HP. Would sure come in handy...
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