Am I the only one who can't believe it's September already??!! Our girl has been back to school a whopping two days and already the homework hissy fit has started.  This was not because the teacher loaded her up, no, her majesty didn't want to sit down and fill out one measly page of numbers!  Why is it that what appears to be a small request or task gets me all the drama of a nordic opera?
  When we ask her to brush her teeth, you'd think I was asking her to rip out her eyeballs!  I have also stopped trying to explain why she has to take care of her teeth.  Talking when no one is listening just makes me feel like a bee trying to fly through a closed window.  Am I the only one going through this?  God help me, I hope not.  Does anyone know Meryl Streep's parents??
   Do you, dear reader, remember an office supply commercial years ago that played the song "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" around the back to school season?  I certainly do.  I must remind myself that I am among a privileged few. I am a stay at home mom.  I didn't plan it this way, as those close to us know but I can acknowledge that I am indeed luckier than a great many who can't afford to spend their days at home raising their child.  I guess it's a function of my age as a parent, as well as my sarcastic temperament.  I gave birth at 40.  When my spouse and I were younger, we had a lot more energy, but no money.  We now have money but not enough energy to handle a bouncy six year old as well as the next parents over.
   There is an old saying that familiarity breeds contempt.  I'm getting the distinct impression that after being home since mid June, we were getting sick of each other.  Granted, we didn't just sit home and stare at the four walls.  There was camp three days a week for most of the summer.  The last two weeks of August we had nothing planned and no camp.  Since I'm such a huge chicken I decided to try to come up with a list of ten or twelve possible things we could do. This included going to the library, mini golf, a movie, visiting Daddy at work for lunch etc.  I think we managed three or four out of twelve.  Clearly, our girl had other ideas.  Some of which involved trying to visit neighborhood friends at 5pm!  This kid has no sense of timing.  Isn't the universal 'you-people-need-to-leave-wilma's-making-dinner' time 5:30pm?
   After a couple of years of cleaning up after mine and other people's kids, mommy is slowly starting to smarten up.  My girl is responsible for any mess she and her guests make.  They are to clean up together, otherwise, she can play at another house.  I've also let another mom know she is welcome to toss my kid out under the same circumstances.  I'm hoping if we gang up on them, we may actually get somewhere.  A mommy can dream.  I'm also learning that playdates are not seven hour affairs! Mercifully, the first time for that was the last.  There's hope for me yet.
  There was also a painful amount of Ipad time.  Ding dong that is now dead!  The Ipad is verboten until the homework is done.  Two nights a week there will also be soccer.  We have also implemented the return of the school year bedtime schedule.  Management Unfair! This is an outrage! You'll be hearing from my lawyer!
  There are parts of summer I will miss.  Mostly they involve visiting Mom Mom at her house to swim in their community pool.  Our girl loves to swim and carting her around for two sets of swim lessons was worth it to see how much she improved over last year. I'm also aware that time with Mom Mom is not an inexhaustable well.  Lunches at Chik-Fil-A weren't bad and there was also a good playground outing with two other moms that was nice.
   I'm also looking forward to regaining my capacity to enjoy our girl.  She has the best giggle and is amazingly smart.  The last two weeks turned me into a worse crab than usual.  I was becoming an overcritical pain in the ass.  Going back to school is just as good for her I think, as me.  Then again, perhaps mommy just needs to get a freakin' job??
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