The School Year Is Over

One day in the first week of June, around 2:50p.m., there was a moment when every single elementary school teacher in my community was likely to be found at the front of their school waving farewell as big yellow buses carted away students for the last time.

Once the bus loads of students were out of sight, I can only imagine the level of happy dancing and fist bumping that occurred as these same educators silently thought (or not-so-silently) “*Thank Gawd, we made through another school year*.”

I, for one, share their “Thank Gawd its over” sentiment.

In a nutshell, it’s been a helluva school year and one I never care to repeat.


After almost a decade of awesome teachers and exciting school days, this year has been the MacDaddy of Big Sucky Sandwiches for my youngest. It’s been a year of academic micromanaging (on the teacher’s part-not mine), new challenges, distressing emails and a new diagnosis. This last school year, for the first time in my life, has been the year I have had to work overtime to not “lose my crap” on a teacher.

Summer vacation is a looked forward to time of year. Families have visions of fun in the sun, beaches, nature adventures and even exotic travel. The kids of course are giddy as heck because it also means no more homework, being trapped indoors for 6+ hours and no more teachers. The same applies at our house. We are lovers of the sun, gardening, exploring new towns and just being lazy. We are also blessed with the fact that, as a full-time freelancer, I can work from home and flex my work around the needs of my kids.

But even after The Fourth Grade Abyss from Hades, I am truly having a moment where I am straddling the fence on being relieved the school year is over. For me, having no kids to drop off and pick up from school daily is a blessing because it means we are together more as a family. The downside is that…we are together more as a family. It’s this weird love/hate tug-o-war scenario that seems to occur every summer during the “June-September” months.

Here’s why I am torn:

I am glad school is over because my 10 and 13 year olds will be able to hang out together more.

The downside is that these two can barely be in the same room without bickering about whose turn it is to potty the dog or who-is-looking-at-who funny. I swear these two love each other, but their methods of showing that love are a little sketchy.

I am also head-over-heals giddy that I don’t have to pack two cold lunches daily for at least 120 days.

It doesn’t sound like a big deal, but when you have one impossibly picky eater, and a teen boy who eats like three grown men, the act of packing school lunches have landed solidly into the Over.It. category for me. However, that tedious task has been replaced by the fact there are two extra eaters in the house extra hours a day, which equates to double grocery runs every week. Last summer I nearly had to sell my right ovary to pay for their endless summer grazing and noshing habits.

Another thing that ranks high in the “Glad to be done with that for a while” is homework.

Let me just say, if I was on the TV show Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader, I would be a disgrace to my family and community. The reality is; NO…I am NOT smarter than a fifth grader. Or a fourth grader and I will even risk forfeiting my Cool Mom card and say probably not a third grader either. And honestly, I believe that the only time my kids will need some of this crazy math stuff they are learning in school is when they will have to muddle through same craptastic math with their own kids.

Can I get a witness?

So the downside to no more homework is…wait…let me think….NOPE.

There is NO downside to THAT.

Let’s move on shall we?

The causal easiness of summer schedule-wise is also a blessing. Gone of are frenetic moments of morning prep where the margin for error is razor thin. The only way to keep my crew on task and not distracted by re-runs of Teen Titans is to watch the clock with military precision and bark out directives like a hyper-spastic Drill Sergeant. Heaven help us if a shoe gets lost or the dog barfs. There have been days, even though we live a mile from school, I get my kids there on time by a gnat’s butt.

Though I do prefer the lax bedtimes and awake times (for them, not me) of the off-school months, we do seem to struggle with a jumbled eating schedule based on when my offspring decide to haul their fannies out of bed. Typically during the summer months we become the masters of Very Late Breakfast or the Very Early Lunch. And supper ends up being pretty much whenever the urges comes over everyone to feel hungry.

My children’s hygiene seems to get a little sketchy as the non-school routine sets in too. My daughter sports the same clothes she sleeps in (oftentimes the clothes she wore the day before) and I could make some side income by placing an oil rig on my son’s head to take advantage of the buildup. If I am not diligent, either kid could pass for a street urchin by mid-July.

Despite the highs and lows, this time of year for our family is like the cherry on the Big Ice Cream Sunday of Life.

For now, I will choose to relish the in-between; the months in between school ending and school beginning. I will ow to make the most of the “dash” between June-September and know that, in handful of quick-moving years, my chicks will fly the coop and these “school” and “non-school” issues will become distant memories. With renewed determination, I know this will be yet another summer of fun, bug bites, exploring and smiles.

I wouldn’t have it any other way.


Rebecca is a freelance writer and blogger living in Northern Minnesota. She is the dedicated mom to two beautiful kids, a veteran blogger at FranticMommy and someone who loves to laugh about the trials and tribulations of parenthood. If another mom reads her corny stories and thinks, “Thank gawd it’s not just me!”….mission accomplished. You can also follow Rebecca on Pinterest