My two youngest kids are entering 11th grade. The recurring theme in my head is, How did we get here so fast?
I have misty memories of their younger years: soft, pudgy baby hands, “Doc McStuffins” playing in the background, and the marked absence of deep sighs and eye rolls in my life.
When my kids were in elementary school, I loved summer. I also loved when it ended.
As much as I looked forward to the last day of school and the lazier pace of summer, the novelty of pool days and ice cream trips eventually wore off. Summer became a noisy house, endless requests for snacks, a backyard mudhole because someone forgot to turn off the sprinkler again, and me asking, “Why is this wet?” several times a day. By August, I was ready for school to start. So ready I’d plan mimosa-level events with other moms to celebrate the kids going back to school.
Now? Not so much.
I like having my teenagers home
My kids go back to school soon, and I’m not refreshing the calendar and counting down the days until I have a quiet house again. In fact, I’m not excited for school to start at all.
Part of it is that summer seems to go by faster every year. I love the slower pace. We don’t have to rush out the door every morning, and we have time to do the fun things we never seem to get around to once school, sports, and everyone’s schedules take over again.
Every August, I get a little mournful because another summer has slipped by.
Courtesy of Jill Robbins.
That doesn’t mean my teenagers are perfect. Far from it.
They drive me nuts. I work from home, so having them home all summer is an almost three-month-long disruption to my peace. They’re loud. They’re always eating. I’m constantly loading and unloading the dishwasher. All the reasons that made me ready for school to start a few years ago still exist.
I see other parents on social media counting the days until their kids go back to school or doing the first-day-of-school happy dance on the porch because they’ve finally got their house back. This isn’t me saying, “My kids are less annoying than yours, which is why you’re counting the days and I’m not.” It’s not like that at all.
Back-to-school season feels more stressful than exciting
I also don’t love what comes with back-to-school season. The chaotic energy of adapting to a new routine and new teachers. The forms to sign. Calling the school because someone’s schedule is wrong while also trying to teach your teenager to advocate for themselves. Suddenly, dinner has to happen at a specific time because everyone has somewhere to be.
Going from the relaxed rhythm of summer to the pace of the school year always feels like being doused with a bucket of icy water. Jarring. Unpleasant.
Maybe before, the quiet house balanced out how discombobulated I felt for the first few weeks each fall. I just know it’s different now, probably because adulthood is very firmly on the horizon.
I’m excited to watch them grow up, but I still want one more summer week
Do I want my kids to stay little forever? Of course not. I have my teary moments when I miss them being 3, or 7, or 10, but I’m genuinely excited to watch them become adults. They’re looking at colleges, thinking about their futures, and discovering who they are. As bittersweet as it is, I wouldn’t trade watching them grow into these almost-adults.
Maybe that’s why I’m not in such a hurry to send them back to school anymore.
I don’t want to stop time. I just wish I could have one more week of summer.
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