Moving forward

It's back-to-school week in our neck of the woods, and we'll be starting... um... soon. While I figure out the logistics of that, I'm mindful that the changes in schedule in the first week of September cause lots of kids (not just mine) to get cranky.

We've already had some major changes this weekend, of course. Eldest has been safely deposited in her dorm, and Big Guy arrived home this afternoon with bags full of belongings, mostly books and dirty clothes. I spent much of the afternoon making an attempt to re-establish order.

Later the kids complained (can you imagine?!?) that I was being negative about their football league of stuffed animals. They divvied the toys up into teams, cut up old socks to make mini-jerseys, left the scissors and scraps on the floor, and then started a round-robin that covered the entire living room. Scads of Playmobil figures watched from the sidelines. I had a few thoughts about the mess, which I shared with my offspring. They thought they'd heard that particular speech before. I keep thinking I could make a fortune if I recorded all the classic parenting rants on a CD, so that moms could hand their kids the disk and say, "Track Seven. Twice." It would certainly save us all some breath.

Ah, well. Ye Olde Choice of "You can put it away. or I'll take it away" made relatively fast work of the disaster.

Onward. 


Tomorrow Big Guy starts at his new school. We've promised that if he is responsible about schoolwork and chores and how he handles his feelings, he will get a dog for Christmas. One of the things on my to-do list is to make that promise into a specific contract, so that we all have the same expectations.