Looking Forward To Summer Vacation.... Kind Of.

Just the other day, my 12-year old son asked me how many more days of school there are until summer vacation. I paused, looked at the calendar and told him that there was just over three weeks left. I smiled, waiting for the enthusiastic response I was sure he would have. Instead, I was met with a groan and an eye-roll, "Three weeks! I'm never gonna' make it!" he said before trudging off in despair.

Ahh, how differently parents and kids see the end of May and the start of June! It's a time of year that brings big changes for both. Not only does it signal warmer weather (hopefully) and a more relaxed daily schedule (generally), but it brings some important milestones as well.

I have mom (and dad) friends who range in age from their twenties to their fifties, and it's always interesting to see what big events are going on in their children's lives this time of year. From graduations to first-time summer jobs to trying a new summer sport to realizing this is the last year your four-year-old will be home with you all the time... kids forge through these events with excitement and sheer enthusiasm for what comes next. As parents we feel their joy, but sometimes we have a hard time dealing with just how fast they are growing up. 

Recently my neighbor posted on Facebook that she was beginning to get anxiety about 4K. I had to laugh when many of her other friends (who apparently know my neighbor has taken up running) posted in reply that she would do fine in her upcoming race. As I read, I thought - only another parent would instantly realize she was referring to sending her daughter to four-year-old kindergarten this fall! If you're a parent, you no doubt remember those feelings as you got ready to send your oldest child off to school for the first time. Of course, by the time you get to the second, third (or fourth child, as is my case), those anxieties seem so trivial.

Another Facebook friend was sharing photos of the spring concert held at Canterbury Elementary school earlier this week. A second mom then commented that as she watched her own child perform in that same event, she turned to her husband to make the smart remark that these were the last songs their fifth-grader would ever sing there, only to realize that what she was saying had left her with a lump in her throat. Just reading her post gave me a lump in my throat too... because we've all been there.

Of course there are other reasons parents dread the end of the school year that aren't quite so sentimental. Like finding day-care arrangements if you are a working parent or trying to find things to keep your kids busy all summer to stave off those eventual cries of "I'm bored!"

My own personal greatest fear is feeding them. At least when they are in school they are limited on what and how often they can eat. Once summer vacation starts, short of putting a lock on the fridge and the all the cupbboards, it gets pretty tough to keep any kind of food in the house. What with two boys, one a teen and the other a soon-to-be teen, plus two younger girls and all their friends who hang out here... the grocery bill is sure to sky-rocket once that final school bell rings.   

At first I thought the solution to the problem would be to limit how much food I buy. After all, when the snacks are gone, they're gone, right? That theory went right out the window the other day when I was due for a trip to the store and noticed our oldest daughter sitting on the couch eating straight out of a bag of croutons (yes the kind you put on salad, but without the salad). It is true - kids will eat just about anything if they're hungry enough!

Of course, as I write this there are four chocolate Easter rabbits sitting on the counter nearby in various stages of earless-ness. Since they've lasted this long, perhaps I will hang on to them. If the kids get really desperate once school lets out, maybe the rabbits will actually get eaten?

If not, I might be able to work them into some kind of dessert for one of those upcoming big events - say my son's eighth grade graduation party?