For some reason, we’ve been seeing a ton of back-to-school ads, commercials, and sales already. It’s not even August yet. But, with those commercials, it is clearly a sign that the summer will be winding down in a month. The kids will go back to school, buses will again block me from getting to work on time, and everyone will get a year older. It also means, that outside of the buses stopping every 10-feet to pick up kids for school, my life will not change one bit. Nope, not even a little bit.
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As June started up and hit mid-month, many people started talking about school letting out, taking their kids to camp, and heading out for vacation. Some complained about having to find stuff to do with their kids. It’s an outside view of what our life will be like in a few years when Sophia starts school. But, again, currently, the end of summer brings no changes to our lives.
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Unlike those of you who have kids in school, we didn’t have to find things to do with Sophia and Maddie during the day. They just kept on going to daycare. I have to admit, it is kind of nice to not have to worry about what to do with them when we go to work every day. No, what camp will they go to. No, how much is this gonna cost us now? We have continuity, which is awesome.
That being said, we do tend to have a lot more going on in the summer months. Vacation, which we came home from a few weeks ago. Yells of “I wanna go to the pooooool!!!” and “I wanna go to the beaccccch!!!” Well, I’m sorry, we can’t go to the beach every day, children.
Honestly, our lives are like a constant state of summer. The days tend to be the same. Wake up, daycare drop-off, go to work, daycare pick-up, come home, eat dinner, sleep, repeat. But, in the summer, there’s just more popsicles and mystery wet spots on the couch from sprinkler butt. And the constant dumping of dirt and grass-filled kiddie pool water off of our deck.
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I know as the years go on and the activities become more involved and more time-consuming, that I’ll look back on this time and be happy that we lived in a state of constant-summerhood. Or constant winter-hood. Or constant-whateverhood. Once we’re finally figuring out camp schedules and how we’ll need to rework our work schedules or after-school care, this time of our lives will seem oh-so-not-hectic at all.
And for that, I am grateful. Having kids is all about finding a balance or what you can trade-off. Right now, we’re trading a consistent daily schedule and the battles of three-year-oldhood for not having to find other care alternatives. Once we hit school-age, we’ll be trading in our consistent schedules for time juggling acts, and hopefully less tantrums.
But, hey, bring on those back-to-school ads, they don’t impact our life at all… To those of you who it does impact, God bless you, my friends. God.Bless.You.
My Journey Through Fatherhood 