On one hand, having my four kids back with their friends at
school will be blissful. We’ve had lots of together time, traveling to the East
Coast to see family and friends, sleeping in princess beds and doing laundry on
the fly. Stressful travel and time changes threw a few moments of suffering our
way, but it was worth all the fuss to catch up and reconnect.
ONCEKids Publishing is run by literacy advocate and Mompreneur Eileen Wacker. Click here to find her acclaimed books
ONCEKids Publishing is run by literacy advocate and Mompreneur Eileen Wacker. Click here to find her acclaimed books
My kids miss socializing with their friends when they are on
a long break. When I drop the last kid off at the school curb, I celebrate. I
can finally get some work done. I can have lunch with a friend and eat food
that I want to eat. I can start to work out again. All the fast food, ice creams,
meals out and barbeques add up. Building childhood memories is fattening and I
need to lose weight. But when I’m really hungry, I lose patience more easily
and end up yelling at my kids.
I’ve spent the last week getting school supplies and making
sure they have the right clothes for the school dress code, PE, and sports. I was
taking my daughters back-to-school clothes shopping today. They are pretty fun
to shop with if they get to pick out their own clothes. My oldest daughter
said, “Can I ask you a question?” She had already asked me about 167 questions
and I was sure I’d been asked over 300 questions from the four kids combined.
“Can Asheley sleep over? Can you pick her up? Her mom works. Can I meet some
friends at the movies tomorrow and go to the beach if there is no hurricane?
Can we get pesto sauce so I can make pasta to bring the first day?” She doesn’t
wait for answers. I want her to enjoy her last moments before school, but her
proposed agenda times four kids makes me start to clutch the wheel and sweat.
Her sister wants her friend to come over for two days of swimming, Dave and
Busters and hide and seek. My son is all-in on bowling and reminding me that he
is absolutely the only eighth grader in his school or on this planet for that
matter who is not allowed to see rated ‘R’ movies. My other son’s club
basketball started and there is practice or a game every day in all different
parts of the city.
My kids claim I force them to go to summer school, tennis,
running and basketball camps and National Geographic expeditions. They
insinuate I stole their summer and owe them these last moments of fun. I want
to yell, “It’s for your own good and I had to pay for it and get you there with
the thousand pounds of gear you needed!” But I have to remain the bigger
person, at least until I get them to the school gates.
Thank goodness for my mom friends. We all have slightly
different versions of the same stories. We get together and we vent. This is
the cleanse diet for stress. I can’t really vent to my husband or he gets out
some random power tool ready to fix something, or makes the colossal mistake of
saying, “You always overschedule them. You need to cut this out.”
Click here for Part 2
Click here for Part 2
Eileen Wacker, a Harvard Business School graduate, lived and worked in seven different countries, including the United States. She commuted to Asia for nearly three years as part of a business development team, which sparked her interest in Asian culture, then lived in Seoul Korea for four years. Wacker now resides in Honolulu, Hawaii, with her husband and four children, one of whom is a daughter adopted from China. She wrote the Mom’s Code, which includes over 100 stories from women around the globe about raising kids in today’s challenging arena. She is also a passionate and involved advocate for children’s literacy. For more information please visit her new website: https://momscode.com/preview/tenets
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