It is that time of year again, where the kids go back to school. And for the sake of my sanity and consequently my family’s sanity, I have made a few new school year resolutions for myself:
1) On pain of death, I will not volunteer for a parent committee. The cost of whiskey is just too high.
2)I will try to avoid as many meetings as possible. Again, the cost of whiskey addiction is just too high (and killer on the waistline). See previous posts tagged school meeting hell.
3) I will not bother my kids about homework. (Again, see previous posts tagged homework). At all. I’ll help if they ask, but that is where it ends. Now, this worries me a bit, because that means I have to trust my kids to think about it and do it themselves which means I am going to have to take my little helicopter mommy self somewhere else. It will will be hard but I think it will be a good lesson in letting go for me, and one of independence for them.
4)I will try to avoid the place, meaning school, as much as possible. Which is easy since I work far away and have to leave before the kids do anyway. Now I just need some good excuses for the parties…I started yesterday by not accompanying them on the first day of school for the first time ever. Why? Because it was unnecessary. Not only did they have the same teachers as last year, they were finally in a position where they knew what was going on. So there. They can handle it. J can handle it. I don’t need to put myself through this.
5) I vow, that, in the measure of the possible, if my kids don’t want to go, I won’t force them.
So there. This post is sponsored by all those parents who have been scheduling their children’s interviews where I work, and by the valuable lesson I learned last school year: if I back off, my kid will have the space to figure it out on her own.
Lina Branter 