(I think.)
Seriously, there has been plenty said about this month in the parenting sphere (Spawned, The Mom Hour). And that’s because it’s true! There have been 3274 class events crammed into the past month. I have had to wrangle work time and moved patients for:
- a 2 hour stint working at A’s school carnival (they essentially asked for all parents to volunteer)
- a 1 hr Mother’s Day event smack in the middle of the work day at C’s school (and a 30 minute drive from my office)
- a 1 hr Awards Ceremony also at C’s school smack in the middle of the work day (this is IN ADDITION to the evening graduation held right around G’s bedtime at a local high school. huh?)
- piano recital yesterday (though they get major credit for offering an evening performance, and it was really well-run!)
(We also went out for sushi. G stayed home with our nanny. This was a taste of what going out with ‘big kids’ is like. It was so easy and relaxing I deemed it “spa parenting”.
Both kids also had field trips, dress up days (one of which I forgot), we had teacher appreciation week (why so close to end of the year when most people do teacher gifts anyway?). And I only have a pre-K and a 1st grader! Just . . . it’s a lot.
I think these events are lovely. I am grateful for our local public school (C goes to a neighborhood private preK because there is no preK offered at the public). I just wish they were a little more . . . dispersed throughout the year.
(Okay fine, I’m actually still annoyed at the 2 events 2 weeks apart in the middle of the work day at C’s school. I would 100% send Josh to the awards ceremony and not go, but he’s so new at his job and doesn’t even really officially have any PTO he’s allowed to use yet. NEXT YEAR we will divide and conquer more.)
But! The end is so close! And it really does coincide with the end of the month. June 4 is the last day of school (!) and then camp starts June 10. Things will be much more relaxed — no homework, no lunch packing, and I get a reprieve from the drop-off which will mean I can even head into work a little earlier sometimes. I also start my official program director schedule, which means I will have a little more flexibility. (Sometimes.)
Things I am looking forward to in June:
- No more homework 🙂
- Break from the weekly Saturday trips to Miami Beach for piano (we are likely going to transition to a more local place next year)
- Individual Mommy Days with A & C!! (One day each kid; they will skip camp and get to design an itinerary of their own choosing.)
- Celebrating Josh’s parents’ 50th (!) anniverary
- We have play dates / social events scheduled almost every weekend
- Only one call weekend and we are taking it together
- Live podcast recording session (these are always fun!)
I plan on filling my spare time with summer reading (made an ambitious list, mostly from the Modern Ms Darcy guide!), workouts (executive decision: I’m not going to do 80DO full out but I am going to start incorporating some of the workouts), and settling into my new work role. Excited for things to come.
16 Comments
I am always amazed how much school holiday kids in the US get in the summer. Here in England my daughter (15) is on half term break this week but heads back on Monday for a further 7 weeks of school before finally finishing (for 6 weeks, which always seems more than plenty!) on 19th July. This is the system across all school ages in England and Wales. I suppose you fill it with camps etc which don’t really exist here.
yes, and interestingly the summer here has actually gotten shorter (but it is still quite long!).
we are off 6/4 and restart 8/14 so just a little over 2 months off. Camp will be for 8 weeks of that!
i’ve decided to put the rest of my reading life on hold while i go through the MMD summer reading guide picks. i chose 15 of the 30 (plus 2 that i had just recently read), which seemed ambitious but doable and made me excited.
somehow 10 days after starting, i am on my 5th book and they have all been so enjoyable! it’s giving me a lot of momentum to keep reading.
will you reveal your selections?
I just have to say (sort of unrelated to the blog post)…that your most recent podcast was your best yet! Tiffany Dufu is incredible. I loved her book and I thought the interview hit exactly the right notes. I agreed with many others about the Facebook rant podcast (as my interpretation of “lean out” was not of the Sandberg variety but rather that she just wants to opt out of societal pressure – to which I say get it girl!) but I thought this past podcast session was a triumphant return of the solid content I love from you and Laura! 🙂
We have 10 weeks of summer for G this year. I do love the camps – kids get to try so many new things and make new friends, but the logistics (different drop-off and pick-up places and times every week) can be exhausting. Plus constantly washing swim suits, checking on sunscreen and bug spray stocks, and remembering dress up days and theme weeks.
May really is a looooong month. I agree about Teacher Appreciation Week. I think the gifts/events/expectations is a Southern thing – my friends who live in PA and MI said that their schools don’t do much more than kids writing a card or hosting a potluck brunch. Our daycare and school each had a potluck lunch, a smoothie bar, gift card day, notes of appreciation day, and flower/candy/favorite thing day.
Your June sounds amazing 🙂
We are in the northeast so school doesn’t get out until the end of June, but OMG I feel you on this one! On one single upcoming Friday my 5th grader is going on the class trip to the local waterpark, my 3rd grader has her end of year performance, and my kindergartner has his end of year performance. Both performances are accompanied by coffee/snack in the classroom. Plus my 3rd grader has an unofficial end of year pool party and we are hosting my kindergartner’s 6th birthday party. The week after that includes two summer work events, one for me and one for my husband, a 5th grade stepping-up ceremony and driving our oldest kids to sleep away camp. I know many of these events will be fun but it is very concentrated in just a few weeks!
Here is my tip since Teacher Appreciation Week comes so close to the end of the school year. I save the best/end of year gift (usually a gift card) for the last day of that week and write “Have a great summer.” on the card with any other thanks we want to share. Then we are done with teacher gifts for the year. I also think it is ok to explain to the teacher that you can’t come during the day during the week of carnival (bc it is in May or whatever reason) but is there something else you can do to help? I have had teachers give me work that I can do from home or at the beginning of the school day. Win for everyone.
Ooh I like that! I ended up contributing to the class gift for teacher appreciation and then buying my own (target) gift cards to give for end of year. But I like that version – two in one!!
May-June is exhausting. My kids are in middle school and I think it gets worse the older they get. Some of the stuff, like dress up days, have lessened, but now it’s bigger final projects, final exams, etc. I told a friend the other day that I felt like I was limping to the last day of school. She was impressed that I felt upright – she’s not sure if she’s crawling to the end of the year or what, but she’s certainly not upright! Parents across the country, unite!
Regarding school events during the day, my husband and I decided years ago to basically split them up 3 ways: he goes to some, I go to some, and then neither of us goes. The stuff we’ve missed has yet to have any lasting impact on our kids. So cut yourself a break when the stress to attend in the middle of the day makes it not worth it! I have zero guilt about missing another concert (that is 2 songs and lasts 4 minutes) or leadership awards ceremony (where every kid gets a certificate).
Agree. I think about this a lot since my mom was a single mom and teacher in another school district and couldn’t leave her school day easily to go to my during-the-day school events and guess what, it was ok! It didn’t have a lasting impact.
That’s awesome to hear!
Our daycare has planned a Parent Appreciation day on a PA Day that ends at 530 (pick up is until 6). So I have to leave work early and take my kids home 30 minutes early. Honestly this shouldn’t be a big deal but after all the things that have gone on in May I’m so done. And my kids is one of the kids who is so sensitive and disappointed when we don’t go to something (we are working on it). Sigh, I just needed to vent.
One of the things I love about my kids school is how organised they are with events. They essentially set dates and times for all their events 12 months ahead and then maintain an electronic calendar that you can subscribe to. So – you can see what the end of year looks like well in advance… and then you can consider whether it’s worth just taking the whole last two weeks of school off to attend events!!!
Just weighing in from over here in Aus. Our school year coincides with the calendar year, so we get Christmas events combined with end of year events! Ted’s kindy last year only had a disco (at night), but he’s at 2 kindies this year and the second one is much more social. I think it’s going to feel super chaotic!
Oh, and we get 2 weeks off for easter, 2 weeks mid year, 2 weeks in September and then 6 weeks in December/January. I would actually prefer a longer summer break, because by the time you get through Christmas and New Years there’s really only 3 weeks available to go away on trips, and everywhere is really busy!
Wow yes – that does sound short! I think it’s actually much less time off total. We get 2 weeks for Dec/Jan holidays, a week for spring break, AND the summer (~10 wks).