The only "real" vacation time this year is in July, because Captain Stubborn is in preschool that follows a more traditional school calendar. So while we technically are off, if I want to do anything "Vacationy" on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, we have to either be home by 1:00 or we have to skip preschool that day.
I have to say that I'm glad for this schedule for a number of reasons, mostly that my eldest, who I need to emphatically say I love dearly, as I do all of my children, but my golly, he challenges me more than the other two combined and then some - but he thrives on the routine and schedule and busy-ness of the school day so being out of school for him, sucks. He hates it. (I type as he heads upstairs with my Dyson's detachable floor cleaner to use it as a toy gun of some sort.)
And so here I am, on Day 3 of a three week vacation, pulling my hair out and thanking God in His/Her infinite wisdom that my children are not on a traditional track because there is no way I'd survive three months in a row of this...
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The first day was super. It was great. See, in the weeks leading up to vacation, Mr. Genius had been really struggling at school and we had to really come down on him with discipline, both the school and his parents working together as a team. That was really working well, frankly. And he was in that honeymoon period where his attitude was turning around and he was remembering all the reasons he had to be cooperative and he was using the new tools he'd been given for improving his behavior and all that jazz.
On the first day of vacation, he had a super secret assignment that I wasn't supposed to know about. As part of his Cub Scout religion award, he was supposed to spend an entire day being nice and doing nice things for someone else. And the person he told DaddyDoc that he chose, was yours truly, PerkyMommy.
Monday was marvelous. We ran errands, he had a smile on his face. We went to Panera for lunch, he was charming and helpful. I needed help around the house, he was happy to fetch things for me or help me find things I was looking for. At the end of the day, I was glowing. Even yesterday when we went grocery shopping while CS was in preschool, he was helping me plan our menu for the upcoming days. Heck, he told me that when we came home, he was going to go on the computer and type it up so I could post it on the refrigerator as a reminder. He came up with that idea on his own. (He didn't do it but he thought of it.)
Yeah. That's over.
This morning I was a good mom. Or so I thought. I let the kids stay in their jammies and watch tv. They watched Tom and Jerry. They watched the Imagination Movers. I had a plan to go shopping this afternoon for new clothes for MG because his clothes are wearing out and he's constantly complaining that he doesn't have anything to wear. We collected all of his pants in one place so we could see just what we're up against and I could mentally inventory what he might need.
Right around 11:00, I put down my bon-bons and coffee to go take a shower. Last night I'd washed some loads of laundry (I stayed up late to move the last load to the dryer,) and in their darling little playing in the family room, the clean clothes that had been on the couch were now all over the floor of the family room.
Not-So-PerkyMommy looked at her three little darlings and said "Ok, I'm going upstairs. I need YOU to pick up these clothes and fold your clothes while I'm taking my shower."
Apparently, this is a really unreasonable request. I had no idea. I missed that chapter in the "How to be the Greatest Mother EVER" book that no one ever bothered to get for me. But it is. In fact, to be precise, that request is "Bullcrud."
See, he's not supposed to hurl the word "Crap" at me, so he didn't say "Bullcrap." He said "Bullcrud." Isn't that clever?
I'm so amused!
No, I'm not. At all.
This is day 3 of their October "vacation." (Which we technically call a "break," because apparently even the school district realizes it's not fun, it's not relaxing, it's not a vacation.) Well, maybe since I don't have to go clothes shopping this afternoon afterall, I might get some more housework done.
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2 comments:
They started year-round schools in our district after I left. It wasn't something I really wanted to do, so I was glad I wasn't subjected to it. I'm not sure how I would have felt about it from a kid level.
One major complaint I heard about was that since the high school would be on the year-round schedule, it was going to be harder for kids to work like the normally did in the summer.
I'm wondering how the year-round thing works for extracurricular activities like sports and band and the like. Are all districts in the same grouping in the same schedule? Because if not, I could see where all their schedules would be messed up with one school or district off-track while others are on track, so when do they have their games and meets and competitions and such?
Is your "vacation" over yet?
First - all of our high schools are traditional track so that's not an issue in hs.
For extra curriculars at our level, we more or less follow the traditional calendar - which is another reason that Vacation Isn't. This month and in the spring, and even during the first week of our Christmas break, we'll still have Cub Scouts and church activities. Kids in sports still have games and practices.
We still have a week and a half to go.
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