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| Back to School is Cool - For Parents
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It’s the MOST wonderful time of the year…….the kids are going back to school - SOON! I am practically giddy with excitement. It’s like anticipating Christmas when you’re 5. I am in awe - just waiting for that magical day to arrive. Does that sound mean? Too bad. I love my kids more than life itself. I like them even more than normal when I get a break from them for a few hours. I like being at home by myself when they are in school. I enjoy the solitude. Home is my favorite place to be and home with solitude, to me, is like the magic kingdom to a child. Magical!
I have been amassing school supplies. Every store I have to go to I check to see what they have on sale for back to school. I’m talking $.22 cents for Elmer’s glue, $.50 cents for a pack of 6 spiral notebooks, 6 mechanical pencils for $.50 cents. I think I might be able to get them most of what they need and a few ‘cool’ things for under $15.00 for both kids. Not bad. Not bad at all.
Both kids need new sneakers. That is no easy ‘feat’. Ha! Pardon my pun. They both have gargantuan feet. Size 12 and size 14. That will be my biggest expense. They’ll reuse the same school bags as last year. They are perfectly fine and operable. No sense buying new. They don’t mind either. They say they just got them ‘broken in’ like a favorite pair of shoes or jeans. They feel better once they’ve been slightly used.
For the past few years I have resisted the need to buy them 10 of everything for back to school. I hunt down the really good bargains like the glue, notebooks, colored pencils, etc. I make sure they have enough to get started with and then in a few weeks when everyone is back in school the stores start throwing the stuff at you to make room for seasonal items such as Halloween, Thanksgiving, and *Groan* Christmas. They want to move out all their extra stock and I can pick up additional items they’ll need for the rest of the school year and I can usually get the stuff for 75-90% off!!!!
I still have folders, glue sticks, and the like from doing this last year. It’s how you have to live when you have no discretionary income to speak of but hey, they don’t seem to mind, or if they do they don’t say anything about it. They’re too busy whining and fretting about having to go back to school to worry about not having 20 of everything to take with them.
The one thing I miss buying them is something stupid. Pencil cases! When they were little pencil cases were cool and cool pencil cases RULED. I used to search high and low to find them the neatest, coolest, most unusual ones out there. When you are 15 or 17 pencil cases are so NOT cool. They are for babies! I still look though and remember their surprise and delight when I would find the ‘bestest one’. Their little faces would light up and they would get busy in earnest arranging and organizing their upcoming school year. Now-a-days they can’t organize their own sock or underwear drawers. They don’t put anything away including their pencils. I find them laying all over - in the strangest of places. But thanks to my own organizing skills and forethought I always know who left their crap laying around because they each get one favorite color of school supplies. All I have to do is manage to remember who got what (easier to do with 2 than it was with 4) and I know who to yell at for leaving their stuff laying around.
It’s usually daughter #3. Always was and probably always will be. I can’t wait to see her first apartment!!!!! I’m betting now that she’ll invite her brother over often and bribe him to clean it for her.
And I already know - he’ll go.
Hell, I can’t wait to see MY house once she gets her own place. I’m already dreaming of all the free time I’ll have on my hands when I’m not picking up after her 24/7.
Hey - *lightbulb moment here* maybe I’ll go visit her often, too.
I’ll lay around, watch TV, mess up her place, run up the electric bill, eat all her food, and then go home to my nice neat house!
Be it ever so humble :o)
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Posted by Xaris on 2008-08-30 00:39:43 | Rating: | Views: 64
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I'm sure it would say in previous blogs, but how old are your children?
I'm 16 and the novelty of pencil cases etc has long been out the door.
But I must imagine that it will be good to have some time to yourself again while they're at school.
I'm sure you've earned the break :)
Emeh<3
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Posted by hearxmexrawrr
on 2008-08-30 03:34:24
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My kids are 22, 20, 17, and 15 (22 and 20 don't live here anymore). The novelty of pencil cases is a distant memory around here too. I didn't know back then, when they were 'into pencil cases' that someday I would miss not needing to buy them. I should have payed more attention and been 'less busy' or less caught up in the day to day details. Maybe I forgot to 'drink it in' and savor it. I guess it's a silly mother thingy. It will be Grrrreat to have time alone but I'll also miss them. It'll be too quiet around here. Funny how things happen, eh? Thanks for the kind comments. They're much appreciated. I hope you have a good holiday weekend and remember back to school is cool - especially for the kids! :o)
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Posted by Xaris
on 2008-08-30 08:03:00
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I hear ya.... of four children, I only have one left in school, so it isn't as exciting as it used to be, but it will be better than seeing him sleep until two in the afternoon on his days off of work.
I remember my husband always saying to my kids, I can't wait for you to get a place of your own so I can jump on the furniture, spill my food and drink, just wreak pure havoc on the place and then leave. two of my children have their own place, and he hasn't done it yet, but I think he is waiting for them to have new furniture and carpet, and then they better watch out...paybacks are a bitch!!!! :)
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Posted by slowtolearn
on 2008-08-30 08:28:53
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Yours only sleeps till 2:00 in the afternoon?!??!?!??! How'd you get lucky enough to get an 'early riser'? Mine are usually just stirring when I am on the way out the door, headed for work, at 3:00pm. They're wondering why there's no milk for their breakfast when most people are beginning to cook dinner. They wonder why I always seem annoyed. I've been up and put in a full days work before I go to work for another 8 and they don't 'get' why I seem to be in a bad mood. Please encourage your husband to make good on his threats and then tell me all about it so I can live vicariously through him - for now. Muhahahaha......my day will come and I plan on giving as good as I got!!!!!! :^)
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Posted by Xaris
on 2008-08-31 21:08:30
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