School starts for my children and myself in T minus 72 hours. Our county had the luxury of being one of the last to start back, so the boys were able to squeeze out a little more summer before doomsday arrives. My tenth grader’s battle cry for the past two weeks has been “I can’t go to bed this early (11 pm)! It’s still MY summer!!” Did I mention he has a bit of the dramatic to him? Next week, six a.m. is going to be quite the smack in the face for all of us.
I took my younger one to sneak peek at middle school and fortunately remembered the chaos that panicked an already panicky me on my first go-round five years ago in the hallowed middle school halls. I lined up at a the back gym door with about 25 other parents who have done this before and waited far from the front door crush of newbies. Eric was hellbent on rolling his eyes at me and high five-ing all of his buddies, greeting them with “s’up?” as we waited. Into the empty gym we slipped to pay for his p.e. outfit before the lines formed. I had remembered to bring cash for everything so we were in and out in five minutes flat-woohoo!
Off to navigate the crazy hallways smelling of Axe bodyspray and the familiar scent of pre-teen annoyance to the homeroom. Eric was completely irritated that I stopped to say hello to former students of mine, neighbors and teachers along the way, but we finally arrived to his class. His teacher’s name was Mrs. Fuchs-a pronounciation I avoided attempting until I heard someone else pronounce it. What a name to have with middle school boys!! She was an older teacher (as am I), and I smiled as I overheard the kids debating in line whether that automatically makes a teacher mean if she is over the age of 23.
Fortunately she was warm and kind, taking the time to shake every student’s hand and welcoming them to the class. My child brought me great parental joy as he was too busy looking around the room to make eye contact with her when she spoke to him. When she asked him what the best part of his summer was, he responded, “Laying on the couch and doing nothing!” I guess I should have just saved that money I spent taking him on a week’s cruise and parked his butt on the sofa with a bag of Doritos and the Wii! We survived this little field trip and the real fun begins on Monday morning. With apologies to M.C. Hammer, “Yo sound the bells suckers, schools back in….”
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Tags: boys, drama, first day of school, M.C. Hammer, middle school, pre-teens, school, sleeping in, sneak peeks, summer
Heidi,
We had our “information day” at high school and middle school on the same day Wednesday! Your descriptions of the MS sound too familiar. As I walked down the hall, the odors hit me. I was thinking that the kids have been gone all summer, how can the smells still be here?
I think I will give Will cash next year and let him manage all alone!One less set of lines to navigate!
Have a great first and following day of school!
why do the halls of school always smell the same? Middle School is the truck stop of smells!!! Have a good school year, from whom the bell tolls!!!
In Canada schools don’t start until Sept 7th. They always start on the Tuesday after Labour Day (which is the first Monday of September every year, so schools start between the 2nd-7th of Sept.)
Oh, we’ve been in school since August 3rd…grrrr.
Laughed aloud at your son’s interaction with his teacher, nice. Oh well, she has to expect it. I love how you took your son on a cruise and that wasn’t the first thing out of his mouth. I had a similar interaction with my daughter that left me thinking, hello, are you remembering any of this?
great blog thank you