My kiddos are happily jumping around at gymnastics right now.
School has started, so new routines and new demands to my
time and attention. Every year is an
adjustment, but more so this year since I have returned to the world of paid
employment outside the home. It’s
part-time but dominates my schedule, as I jigsaw all the responsibilities I
have for home, family and work within 24 hours.
Always, I am the primary chauffeur. My schedule is regimented: before school, during school, after
school. Occasionally, I feel freedom
after 8:30PM but always short-lived before the mental checklist for tomorrow
starts. I don’t enjoy the scheduling
aspect of modern motherhood.
For one crazy week of lapsed judgment, I had convinced
myself that both kids needed 2 after-school activities. I thought that this would be do-able if I
could find 2 activities on the same 2 days of the week with locations in close proximity. Right.
Have I mentioned that I am an optimist?
That, of course, did not pan out.
Because I also waited until the first week of school to register,
activities were already filled up. Who
knew most kids extracurricular activities started the week before school? (People, that’s the last week of summer! Hello?)
No one in the family could rally for Cub Scouts. It never gelled for us last year, and while I
was half-heartedly willing to try this again, no one seem particularly excited,
to include the boy. I began the rally for a 2nd sport or
activity. Martial Arts? Tennis? However, a 2nd activity meant that
I would be carting the kids every night Monday through Thursday. Does anyone else think this is overkill for a
preschooler and elementary kid? Yes, it
is. Because thinking about this schedule
immediately puts me in a foul mood, which seriously makes my job as family cheerleader
more difficult.
What makes sense for my family? I gave myself permission to drop the crazy
schedule AND permission to not feel guilty that somehow the kids are going to
miss out on enrichment, on activities, on friendships. I gave myself the pep talk that the kids will
be just fine, even if I don’t cart them around town after school every day,
that they are not falling behind socially, that I’m in fact providing
boundaries in a world of unlimited choices.
I feel at peace with my decision. Today, anyway.
