Summer is over....YIPPEE!!!!

This time, two years ago, I walked home from Des Moines Elementary shedding little crocodile tears, lamenting the passage of yet another milepost in my sweet little daughter’s life. She started kindergarten. She took another step towards the threshold leaving our home and becoming what she will, which will include not needing me anymore. I’m pretty sappy about these things and I was kind of bummed all day. What a difference a little time makes!! I was dancing as I left school this year!! Get these kids back in school!! The day is mine again!! I can do whatever I want!! I can get something done!! I don’t have to hear “I’m hungry” all day long. I don’t have to yell at anybody, unless I want to!! I’m free!!


I am by nature, a summer guy. I love the sun and heat and long days. I never want it to end. I always hate the end of summer, knowing that many gray days lie ahead. With kids at home all summer, I now say, “let it end”. Get those suckers out of the house!! My kids have changed my perspective on summer. Like every other thing of mine they touch, they have now even ruined summer. I don’t want it to be longer. I want it to end so I can live again!! I feel like a freshly released prisoner. I am liberated!! I can rejoin the human race. I can think and work and contribute to the world beyond my driveway. This feels soooo goooood!!

I am always aware of the passing of time in my life and my kid’s fleeting childhoods. I recognize and appreciate the wonderful moments and little evolutions they experience daily. I am very philosophical about this and intent on paying attention to the details. I watch, listen and understand when they make fresh discoveries about how the world is. After these moments, their world is forever changed. You can’t go back to before. I understand that this is supposed to happen and what I ultimately want, but I also want them to stay little and unaware and need me to explain it to them. Unfortunately or fortunately, they are now explaining it to me. This is good, I suppose, as heaven knows I can use all the help I can get, however, I am not quite ready for their instruction. I only want them out of the house, not out of the nest. But leaving they are and I cannot change this and probably don’t want to anyhow. It is what it should be.

So this day, I will appreciate the summer that was and the fact that I am not in county lock-up on a dubious strangulation charge. They made it and so did I. We all did. (I hope!) Now is our time, as parents, to rejoice and breathe easy and know that we survived a long, not-so-hot, loud summer. We can now leave the vacuum and continue our own journeys.

On this day, I wish all fellow parents a happy release and congratulations on making it through another summer without delivering or incurring any irreparable damage. For those of you without kids, when you see a parent walking a little lighter, laughing a little more easily and heartily, give them a smile and a pat on the back. Maybe ask them if they want to go to lunch. Trust me, they do!! And not in the McDonald’s kid’s area. They want to sit in the bar section and engage with grown-ups!!! For a pleasant change.