Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Sorry Dr. Laura. I didn't know I didn't want to raise them until after I had them.


If I have to choose between parenting my children and driving them to an activity, I’ll pick the activity every time.  Before I had multiple children, I judged parents who over schedule their spawn. Of course, I also bought into Dr. Laura’s “Don’t have them if you don’t want to raise them” slogan. Sadly, I didn't know I didn't want to raise them until after I had them.

Children fight. This isn't shocking. Thanks to my brother, I still hold a grudge over my nickname, Chewbacca, not to mention I’m slightly obsessive about shaving. So instead of allowing my children to damage each other, we separate them as much as possible by enlisting them in every activity they show marginal interest in. This philosophy has served us well. At school, our kids are viewed as well-rounded leaders. During the few hours the kids are home, they’re too tired to argue.

Which leads to my current problem – summer. Everyone loves summer. Everyone except me. You’ll never hear me complain about winter or cold. (Although I might have a full-on coronary when school is cancelled for snow.) Summer combines everything I hate most: a lack of routine, a house full of bored kids, and heat.

As of next Thursday, I am taking over for my kids’ teachers and coaches. As a stay-at-home mom, summer is my busiest season.  It’s the time I have to train them for everything they’re missing in their life curriculum plus reinforce school topics that either require extra assistance or are lacking altogether.  That sentence sounds great in theory, doesn't it? Like something from a parenting magazine. But the truth is that it’s freaking hard work and I don’t mean for them – it’s hard for me.

I’ll supervise and instruct our kids as they complete assigned tasks at home. These tasks take 10x longer and don’t meet my expectations when my children help, so I will bite my lip and attempt to be positive (and if you know me at all, you know that’s a lot of work in itself).

 I will tutor them with supplementary schoolwork. For the past few years, I've assigned a math sheet every day and one book report a week. It takes me longer to prep and check the work than it does for the kids to do it, but they don’t backslide during the summer months.

Don’t get me wrong – we don’t run our house like a boot camp – but we crave routine. We’ll swim every day and play tennis, but I’ll set aside an hour for school work and an hour for chores so that the kids will appreciate their free time. Sometimes I wish my kids were content sitting in front of a television, but then I remember that I’m not either. So if the choice is to schedule them or listen to them fight, I’ll still pick the activity every time – even when I have to do all the work and teach them myself. But I'm counting the minutes until the teachers take them again.