Your Summer Guilt Trip

In two weeks, public school begins for many people.

So there is a clear message to parents of children whose summer routines look different from school routines.
Some parents work at home, from the home, outside the home, around the home, for money, for nothing, for peanuts, for hugs, for the neighbor's tomatoes.
Some kids go to school at home, away from home, or sleep away from home.
We are all different.
And at this point in the summer, we parental units need to start feeling a little guilty.



By now, we, us, have stopped responding to, "Mom, watch this!"
We also have become numb to, "Mom, look!!"  Especially while said Mom is driving.

You should feel guilty, you so-called Mom.



You should also feel bad about the fact that when your child(ren) calls out, "Mom?!?!" that your first response - before even knowing the request or compliment - is,
"No!  But thanks for choosing me!"



If you have more than one child in the home at any given moment, whether or not s/he is related to you, if you get irritated at all with the fact that all comments, suggestions, questions must occur simultaneously, then you should seriously feel bad about yourself.



And the space between questions?  The space when the actual answer to the question emerges? Summer proves this space doesn't exist.
If this bothers you at all, you are probably a bad parent.

There is no room between the following questions/comments:
"Where are we going? What are we doing? Why? When? Why is this so boring? I am so bored. This day is already ruined."
Bad parent.



If you have a child over the age of 5 months, then s/he is probably asking you:
"When can I have my own phone? iPad? Kindle? Laptop? Desktop? iPod Touch? iPod? Samsung thing? Kindle Fire? Facebook account?"
"When are we going to get there?"
"Do we have anything to eat?"
"Why is this so boring?"
"Can we go buy something?"

If these questions annoy you at all, again, feel bad about yourself.



Summer is not eternal. Seasons come, cycles continue. This is a phase. Your guilt, exhaustion, fatigue, love and persistence will fade then glow then leave you in the fetal position.

But you can do it.

Only two more weeks until the season changes.

If you are discouraged, come on over to my house with your little ones and we'll squirt them with the hose in the driveway while we feel guilty about our lack of energy.

Seriously, y'all, feel guilty. It'll be okay.