Here we go again. It happens about this time every year. And yet, even though I know it is coming I get so angry. I take to Facebook, Twitter and now my blog to vent. It’s those premature back to school catalogs that get me so irate. With their overdressed little ones, pilled with backpacks, lunch boxes and cute hair accessories.
Oh Pottery Barn and Hanna Anderson cant you let a summer loving Mom and her kids enjoy these few precious months when I don’t have to think about PTA meetings, packing the perfect lunch and science projects? Cant you just wait until August? Yes, your little outfits are sugar coated cuteness but we are still wearing out the stuff I bought last March when you started pushing summer clothes. And Staples and Office Depot can we hold off on buying number two pencils, binders and highlighters for a bit? I appreciate your well stocked shelves and burning desire to sell me the latest gadgets but let’s take it down a notch, shall we.
I mean, I am by any definition a well organized, non-procrastinator who always has her kids ready for school at least a few days prior-to the ever changing back to school date. But even for those who aren’t is July really when we have to start being reminded? Yes, we know the summer will end and we know you are salivating at the dollars we must spend in order for our kids to look super cool for back to school. But I mean really, July?
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So I have decided to keep right on doing what I have been doing since the start of summer just a few short weeks ago. That’s right marketing executives, for some of us here in the northern states old man winter pushed school and extra week or more.
I am going to work on my summer reading list (read trashy magazines), pick blackberries in my yard before the birds get them, eat too much full calorie ice cream and delight in my overgrown garden. I will encourage my kids to play outside the full 15 hours the sun is out, eat too much ice cream with me, sleep late (OK, a mom can dream) and swim in the Vineyard ocean until their fingers and toes look like prunes. I will not think even for a moment about all the things the kids need come Labor Day. As-a-matter-of-fact, I think I will just send those flashy back to school catalogs right to the recycling bin.