One of my favorite things as a child was going "back to school" shopping. I loved getting the supplies, the new sneakers, the clothes, the haircut...pretty much the whole deal was great with me. As a parent of two kids, I do not share this lovely feeling anymore. Maybe its because my kids are not as gung-ho about all the running around and shopping. They both love the trip for school supplies, so I have that going for me. Otherwise, one hates haircuts, the other does not like to try on clothing, both have shoe issues (they have their mother's big feet). In short there are abundant complaints and much foot dragging. No one wants to wait while the other picks out clothes. Then the ugly clothing suggestions happen. Somehow, my kids have the ability to seek out the most hideous looking shirt and then say, "You would look GREAT in this". Naturally in a really snippy tone that suggests their sibling is equally as hideous looking as the garment. Mind you, both are quite pleasing to the eye (maybe I am biased). I do not recall giving my mother this treatment. I did not heckle my siblings and cause scenes in the store, at least I do not think I did. Mind you, we are no where close to being "fully stocked and ready", but we must continue to fight the good fight for school readiness.
The bigger issue right now is the kids just need to get back to school. I am officially done with summer. We have wrung out all the fun we possibly can from the Summer 2010. Now we are left with a few more weeks of summer break and a general state of aggravation and annoyance with each other. I am sick of nagging, they are sick of hearing me nag. No one wants to be near anyone. Yet we are forced to go store to store getting the necessities for school. My mistake was having kids of two different genders, five years apart. There are not many stores that accommodate both of their clothing preferences and my budget preferences. If they insist upon growing, I insist upon not spending a fortune. Seeing as there is no way to change the gender and age issues, I am forced to vent to you about my back to school problems. This is becoming a solid argument for year around school. If they go to school all year, then there is no "back to school" push for new clothes and shoes. It would be like work clothes, you get new things as the old wear out. I never thought I would support the school all year movement, but the length of the summer break and the crazy-making back to school shopping have me seriously considering the some of the advantages of going to school all year. Maybe once school starts and things settle back into a routine I will change my mind. Until next year when the back to school push starts once again.
I'm certainly waiting for the First Day of School to roll around too! There is no back to school shopping being done here except for the list of suggested supplies. I'll by clothing as needed. It is helpful that I have 3 of the same gender fairly close. What I do know is that one of them has lost their shoes and I may need to buy a new pair if they don't turn up. BTW my sister loves the year round school that they have in California!
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