The Joy Of Summer's End

A Your Mom post.

Thank god it’s back to school. Mine went back today, and I was counting down the hours until I could drop them off. Until I could spend blissful, wasted minutes alone in my car, gazing into my phone’s screen or driving home in pure, sweet silence. The relief I feel at the start of the school year is equal to what I felt as a kid when classes let out for summer.

Which is sad! And kind of fucked up, right? But also having spoken to a lot of other moms about this, I don’t think I’m alone! Summer comes with promises of leisure and ease, but for many of us the reality is scrambling for childcare, battling for spots at camp, and beautiful days with zero structure and kids who feel turned upside down by that. There are excellent moments, pure bliss, rediscovery of the world through your child’s eyes - our trip back to New York was objectively wonderful but it was also exhausting. I have everything set up for my success, and I still really felt challenged.

By Elizabeth Berget

The really awful thing is how much I could see my kids struggling through this - especially in the week leading up to school (which, granted, came at the end of a multi-week and multi-house trip back East). I over-cuddled them, over-hovered, micromanaged them trying to over-correct from the moments I lost it.

I wondered if my frustration and strained patience was rubbing off on them. If they’d go back to school and feel the same relief when I dropped them off - to finally have a moment to themselves - that I felt.