The utterly-chaotic, complete-disregard-for-human-decency-and-acceptable-behavior, lord-of-the-flies-lawlessness of summer vacation is drawing to a close.
And I couldn't be happier.
It means many, many wonderful things are on the horizon...
My house will stay clean for an 8 hour stretch.
My food budget will no longer rival the GDP of a small country.
I will not do inane amounts of towel laundry, over and over again every week.
I will not come home to all the windows wide open with the air conditioning going full blast and set at 68.
I will not be breaking up lunch time fights of two kids in the garage who are wearing shorts, wife-beaters and brandishing sticks at each other.
I will not have to hear the hourly, nails-on-a-chalkboard chorus of "I'm bored."
But all of this wonderfulness comes at a price for parents. It's called Back To School Supplies.
Whenever we go to Shopko to get the supplies, I always mistakenly think it's going to not be that expensive. I get lulled into a false sense of security when I see notebooks advertised at .15 each, and loose leaf paper on sale for less than a dollar. I don't know why, but I always think I'm going to walk out of there by only spending about $75. With four kids? I must be sniffing glue or something because that's just not even in the realms of possibility.
We stroll into the store, each kid clutching their supply list. I push the cart, and everyone takes off in different directions, randomly throwing pencil boxes, highlighters and folders into the cart. I get a little panicky when I see the mound of supplies grow. "Wait!" I'll yell as I see a calculator tossed in there. "What kind did you get?"
"I dunno, Mom. The one on the list."
"Well, is it a $15 calculator or is it the one next to it on the shelf for $108?" It's these kind of things that make my heart race.
I'm also going to go on record (and it's my blog so I can) and state that it's pretty sad that parents are expected to now be providing disinfectant wipes, tissues, napkins and other classroom supplies. I am not blaming the teachers or the schools for this. Not at all. I know teachers spend a ton of their own money for things. But I do think its sad that so much money has been stripped from our schools' budgets that teachers are forced to pass along these additional expenses to parents who might already be struggling. Something is wrong with our politicians and government. Let's stop with some of these uber-wealthy tax write-offs and toss a little more toward education, shall we? Ok, my political soap box moment is over.
Back to the costs of going back to school...
And we haven't even done the school clothes shopping yet. The thought of that makes my face get hot and a sick feeling in my stomach.
Maybe those shorts and wife beaters will come in handy after all. They can also use the sticks, hobo style, and carry their books to school with them.
But I shouldn't complain too loudly... I don't want my kids to think they're a financial burden. I mean they totally and completely are, but they shouldn't be made aware of this (at least until they read this blog.) Look at my son's face as he held up the receipt from our school supply shopping. He thinks it's fantastically funny that it's as long as an alligator.
I want my kids to be excited and happy to go back to school.
God knows I am.
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