Today is the first day of school here in the GTSA. I could not be happier. Reflecting on summer break 2012, I’m calling
it a pyrrhic victory. Here’s why.
First Day of Second Grade. This is take 2 by the way... |
The summer began with lots of idyllic goals. We were going to go on picnics. We were going to read lots of books and be
regulars at the library. Bruce was going
to learn things at home through all these fun, learning crafts and experiments
I was going to organize. He was going to
go to camps and such and have friends over.
Oh, and do all this while having the house on the market. Yeah.
Right. By week 2 I accepted defeat
and knew that most of those goals would never EVER be met. So I changed tack. I went into pure survival mode. My new, more achievable goal was to emerge
from summer vacation WITH my sanity intact and WITHOUT having murdered my
children.
To put it mildly, Reed is a bit of a challenge right
now. I hate to go across the street with
him, much less to the library or the children’s museum. When everything has to be planned around a
nap time, the 7 year old often got the shaft.
With his newly acquired smart mouth from all the crap television he’s
been watching, he never hesitated to let me know how pitiful he life is.
So this summer, I gave the kids McDonald’s way too
much. We drive past there and Reed
shouts “FRIES!!!” I yelled every
day. I didn’t regulate the amount of TV
or video games. Running errands was hell
as Reed would scream and Bruce would scream in an effort to get Reed to stop
screaming. We didn’t get to church
enough. When we went I’m pretty sure it
was only for the childcare. I lied and
lied about what happened to the dog, Katy, after she died. I realized that I don’t have a key to my own
house. I locked us out of the
house. I went to the wine store with an
alarming frequency. After the 4th
of July, we’re probably not welcome at First Baptist Church. We were screened by the TSA and shaken down
by customs. I guarantee that if they had
not let us through customs, they would have quickly changed their minds because
only the parents would put up with Reed at an airport.
This is take 1. He's mad that I'm so happy it's the first day of school. |
There were black eyes, skinned knees, burns, courses of
antibiotics, bruises, sun burns and bug bites time outs, whippings swats and
tears. And now it’s over. I survived.
Next summer will be the summer of libraries and homemade popsicles and
science experiments. It will. I promise….
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