School Year’s Eve

School Year’s Eve ain’t like New Year’s Eve.

New Year’s Eve is a one day event that begins with anticipation and ends with a “big ball dropping” on Time Square.

“School Year’s Eve,” on the other hand, lasts a few weeks.

It’s that time period between the end of camp and summer “programs” and the start of school when we prepare for everything that we think lies ahead in the new school year and make no mistake…..it is not just for kids.  In fact, School Year’s Eve is really not about the school age children at all…it is about the parents of those school age children.

It is about parent anxieties over schedules and carpools and teachers who are “right” for our kids….

And parent feelings about preparing for school in a way that gets us all off to a good start….

Hence, though it is so not me that is starting a “new grade” this September……

I shop for School Year’s Eve like I would shop if a natural disaster was coming our way….filling the pantry and refrigerator with the “healthy foods and snacks” that I always imagine we should start a fresh new school year with.  As if suddenly my children will actually eat a sandwich on whole grain bread  or eating ten 100 calorie snacks is better than eating one thing that actually makes you feel full.

And I prepare those kids like a Nascar mechanical team prepares a car before the race…we have looked under the hood and had physicals, dental exams and worked on the aesthetics of the “car” with dermatologists and haircuts and orthodontist appointments.

Back to school shopping has occurred….as if there will be no clothing left in the stores the day after school starts.  Even though I swore I would not repeat the horrors of my childhood experience of shopping for “school shoes” with my mother that would fit my Triple E wide feet (my sister could wear “fashion” shoes…..but Buster Brown and Stride Rite carried special shoes for kids like me…they had the foot equivalent of the husky boy department), I can’t get over the idea that a child should at least start school in a clean pair of stylish sneakers.

Supplies have been purchased….one never knows whether Staples, Target and every other major chain in the country will “run out” once school starts….

All this School Year’s Eve stuff and I still don’t feel ready…..

But my kids are….and like we wake up on January 1 and it is just another day full of promise….that is how my kids will go off on the first day of school….

Happy School Year’s Eve!!

May no “balls drop” for you or your students this coming school year.