Back to School

Oooh, goody!! Almost time to send the kids back to school. I know all the kids in our family are delighted at the prospect of a new school year (slightly exaggerated). My husband and I have one straggler left at home, our 16 year old son, who will be a junior this year and 5 grandchildren in various stages of their school going career.

A lot of preparation goes into getting kids ready for school these days. When I was a child we got new underwear, a couple of outfits, some socks, shoes, notebook, pencils or pens for the older kids. Toss in the ceremonial night before school starts back bath which yielded raw skin and bald spots and you were good to go another year. I never understood why we were required to be extra clean for the first day of the new school year or the need for new underwear. I don't remember ever showing off my new drawers to anyone. No sir, didn't happen.

Kids today require a great deal more preparation before jumping on the big yellow bus to begin a new and exciting school year (another slight exaggeration). Don't even get me started on the back to school wardrobe for kids these days. Aeropostle, American Eagle, Gap, Old Navy...............what the heck happened to good old K Mart?

Along with clothing comes the additional cost of school supplies. A second mortgage is often needed to finance getting ready for back to school especially for families with 2 or more children. Parents need to buy hand sanitizer, Kleenex, Lysol spray, liquid soap, paper towels, a certain kind of folder, specific type of paper, pencils, blue pens and or black pens, binders, and the list goes on.

I do what I must to ready my son for the big day as I am sure other parents do. I begin ordering him to bed earlier two weeks prior to the first day of school in anticipation of his soon to be changing schedule. I order ............he ignores. The important thing is I try to do the right thing.
I give lectures about the upcoming year, fresh starts, new opportunities, so on and so forth. I'm really pumped. I'm proud he is patiently listening. A sponge soaking up all the words of wisdom I am offering until I glance over at him and see the wires dangling from his ears attached to his ipod. I would gladly kick the rump of the ipod inventor but I'll save that for another blog. I try to schedule appointments before the school year begins, doctor, dentist, hair cuts checking each one off my to do list as I complete a task. I'm a woman on a mission step outta my way or you might get hurt. Finally all systems go with the exception of the ceremonial night before school starts back bath. The boy is just gonna have to manage that one on his own.