It's Back To School Time

Today marks the second successful day of school around my home (for K-12). Most of the college students already headed back last week. I had to laugh today when my boss (the church's pastor) said that the Sunday School parent meeting had only 5 people attend last night. He sounded a little discouraged until his wife (who is an elementary teacher) reminded him that yesterday was the first day of school.

As parents, we know what that can mean ... emergency forms needed to be filled out and signed, school supplies needed to be purchased, lunches had to be made, bedtimes had to be enforced and if you're like me ... a headache needed to be treated. My daughter is a high school junior this year and all I can say is 'boy was she wired last night'. My husband and I sat at the dinner table and listened patiently to the full blown details of every class she has, every teacher she has, the sophomore/junior/senior ratio of every class, who said what to whom, what instrument she would be playing in the orchestra this year (switching it up and playing bass instead of the viola ... a fun challenge), and to top it off when I asked her if she had found any of her friends to eat 'A' lunch with she smiled and informed her father that she did and is eating lunch with some of the guys on the boys' swim team. Statements like that will make the hairs on the back of her dad's neck stand out every time. Fortunately we know who one of the boys is and dad approves. It's funny though. When her older brother was in school he had more friends that were girls than boys and now I see the same similarity with my daughter. While she has A LOT of girlfriends she also has a lot of boys who are friends who stand in as brothers, which is not a bad thing.

So, whether you are responsible for running your kids to soccer practice, making the lunches, carpooling to girl scouts or chaperoning the marching band at the weekend football game ... I tip my hat to you in respect. School schedules can be just as busy for parents as they are for the students, but years from now we'll all hopefully look back and smile. Time flies by too quickly as it is. Enjoy this time with your kids. There is no other time like it and you can't get it back later. Makes sense to enjoy it while it's here.