I Suffer From "The End of School" Mom Syndrome. Do YOU?

Have you read Jen Hatmaker's "Worst End of School Year Mom Ever" blog post?  If not, then you have to go HERE and check it out.  The woman nails how I currently feel about the ca-raziness of the last few weeks (ok, months) of school.

You all know that I'm a self-proclaimed "Type-A/arrive 30 minutes before all appointments/fresh baked goods in the kids' lunches/Bookworm Family social coordinator extraordinaire", right?  That's how I roll ... at least for the first 8 months of school. 

See, at the end of August I eagerly get the kids and their school stuff ready as I hum the Staple's commercial jingle 'It's the MOST wonderful time of the year.'  After 9 weeks of the kids being home and beginning their ever increasing mantra of 'I'm BOOOORED' the kids are going back to school!  Huzzah!  At the beginning of September my small humans have their backpacks cleaned; pencil cases are filled with sharpened pencils, erasers and colourful pencil crayons galore!  Gym clothes smell like a fresh summer's rain.  Running shoes have laces that aren't frayed and their socks are a gleaming white.  Planners are neatly filled out and homemade nutritious lunches are packed with love.  I am the master of the beginning of the school year!  I own it, people!

But things, sadly, do not stay that way.  Jump ahead to late May and the entire month of June and you'll see how my organizational prowess takes a disastrous nose dive.  We go from the blissful September leisurely mornings to eight months later where someone is screaming that they can't find their planner in order for me to initial them; I'm told money is needed today for a school trip I knew nothing about; gym clothes haven't been washed in so long they could stand up on their own volition and quite frankly, Scarlett?  I just don't give a d-mn.  Yup, this Mom has left the building by the end of May. 

By late May -- Stick a fork in me ... I'm done.

It's not that I don't care by the end of the year ... ok, that's part of it.  But mainly I'm just tired.  Oh so very tired of keeping track of three kids' busy schedules.  Plus I work part time, Brad's been extremely hectic at work, we've been busy with Boy 1 getting his Chief Scout award, and he's graduating Grade 8 as well as packing to go to the national Scout Jamboree THREE provinces away from me.  Plus we have Boy 2 and his karate and field trips and Missy Moo is scheduling play dates with her BFFs well into the new millennia and suddenly wants an intricate Greek inspired dress made from scratch for her Social Studies class -- and she knows that her Mom may bake and DIY but she does NOT sew, people! Not a stitch! 

Honestly, by the end of the year the fact that the kids get off to school on time with a decent lunch (and not a random can of Zoodles thrown into their lunch bags, a can opener) makes me feel like a rock star.  Oh, how fast and far the mighty have fallen.

Needless to say, this mom has reached her organizational and energy limit by May but I also don't want to be "The Mom Who Forgot or Didn't Participate".   In case you weren't aware there's a lot of fierce Mom Competition out there and to opt to not do something 'just cuz' goes against my inner Momness.  I want to do it all but I'm learning that by the end of the year I have to pick and choose how much I can do if I want to stay sane ... and that makes me a little sad because I don't want to miss out on a minute of my kids growing up.  I love a smooth running family and unfortunately right now The Bookworm Family truckster is a jalopy just trying to putt-putt its way over the end of school finish line.  We'll make it but we may not look pretty doing it.

Today was another indicator that I need a vay-cay from chaos.  Missy Moo had her track and field meet.  I had the day off so I said I'd drive over and watch her compete in the relay race.  I looked in my calendar this morning and noticed that it was at the university stadium. That couldn't be right.  I obviously typed it in wrong because it's always at a school in a very small town 20 minutes from us.  Phew!  Luckily I caught that one! 

So I drive over to the small-town school only to see that it's a typical day at that school.  There is NO track meet here, people!  I look at my calendar again and feel like something's up because I know I'm right ... and then I check the on-line school notice board and see that I have made a tremendous faux pas.  My initial info in my calendar was indeed right.  Gah! 

Luckily I still had enough Mom-sense to arrive my requisite 30 minutes ahead of time so I hightailed it, via back roads and warp speed, and drove the 25 minutes it takes into the university to arrive literally 2 minutes before Missy Moo began her relay race.  There I am standing there, panting away, expecting to get a ribbon because I won MY race.  I made it.  The Mom Guilt can be saved for another day.  My faith in my Momness has been restored.  Ok, so seriously, where's my ribbon??

So, to all those other moms out there who are at the end of their proverbial ropes with class parties, getting the 'Red Circle of Shame' from the teacher for forgetting to initial planners, last minute field trips and class parties up the wazoo please know that you are not alone in the trenches of Momness.  I walk in the trenches with you ... with two different socks on, sipping cold coffee as I try to figure out how I'm going to bake cupcakes for a bake sale tomorrow while I'm watching Boy 1 at his Tae Kwon Do class tonight. 

Summer vacation?   Oh ya.  I'm ready!!

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