I love my girls and I do love spending time with them. But sometimes I just feel gypped when they get the day off school.
The time I use when they are at school is incredibly valuable. I use some for volunteering, some for making money, some for cleaning (OK, not much for that) and a tiny bit for just being able to breathe without a house full of people running about.
So when I look at the school calendar and see a four- or three-day week coming up, well, I feel like I just lost out on the time lottery.
I had always thought that once both my kids were in school I would luxuriate in all those extra hours (five days a week)! Yet somehow, I have ended up taking on more and more responsibilities, so I am always on the run. Things slow down quite a bit when the girls are home.
And how is it they always seem to get up earlier on a day off than on a school day when I have to BEG them to wake up?
Oh, well. Having them home an extra day a few times a quarter is OK. We usually don’t plan anything major. They just relax and enjoy the down time. And it’s usually a much calmer day for me than a regular school day. That’s good.
But I do have a serious bone to pick (make it a wishbone) for whoever made the big change with Thanksgiving week. I mean, could someone tell me who had the bright idea to give kids the Wednesday before Thanksgiving Day off? When I was a kid we always had only Thursday and Friday. I would have loved to have that Wednesday, too.
Now that I’m my extended family’s Patron Saint of Thanksgiving Dinner Preparation, what I wouldn’t give for my kids to still be in school on that Wednesday – giving me an extra seven hours, undisturbed, to get ready for a houseful of turkey gobblers.
Well, I guess it’s not too hard to figure out how this happened. Most of those teachers are moms, too. No doubt they found a way to get the day off, over the years, because they’d rather be at home with their kids getting ready for the holiday than in the classroom, writing out their own shopping lists while pretending to pay attention to the kids at show and tell.
I guess as moms, we’re all in the same, time-starved, boat.
Which reminds me, where in the heck did I put that gravy boat last Thanksgiving?
