The Cycles of School and Summer

I remember the last day of school (and the days leading up to it) like it was just yesterday. How excited I was for the days of no homework, no projects, no tests, no agendas to sign, no test papers to sign, no arguing with kids about getting homework done - and getting it done properly - no millions of letters from school to read every week. It makes me tired just thinking about it. What a relief it was going to be to come home from work and not have any of those responsibilities to think about.

So, school was finally over and all I had to worry about was what to do with my 10-year-old son for the summer. Not the worst problem in the world, right? I had things all planned out:

Week 1 - He would go to the camp at Laurel Creek.
Week 2 - He would go to the cottage with Grandma (this turned into a week at Rim Park YMCA camp and an additional $150 I hadn't been planning on because he didn't want to go to the cottage).
Week 3 - He would be on holidays with us.
Week 4 - He would go to swimming camp in the morning and then back to a friend's house for the afternoon.
Week 5 - He would go to a technology camp where they would learning how to make video games (cool).
Week 6 - He would be back at Laurel Creek camp.
Week 7 and week 8 - We'd wing it when we got there (it was WAY down the road - lots of time to think about that).

Quickly, the homework and other school headaches were replaced with the new headackes of having to leave the house earlier than usual to get to camp and then to work on time, having to juggle work hours around and team up with the parents of friends to figure out how we were going to have the kids picked up before the pickup deadline (and not have to incur even more camp costs), packing up lunches and drinks and sunscreen and bugspray and bathing suits and towels and hats and layers of clothes for all types of weather. Then there was the daily drying out of the bathingsuits and towels to be ready for the next day of camp. It didn't take long before camp was not looking like a much better option than school.

Now, I am on my last week of vacation and heading into week 7 and week 8 of summer, and as you may recall from the above agenda, without any concrete plans for my son. What seemed like WAY down the road has arrived like a speeding train. Now I am phoning up family and friends trying to figure out who might be able to take him for a day or two over the next couple of weeks. I suppose there is always the option of asking his older brother (who is not living with us at this time) to come over and babysit a couple of days. If the price is right, he might consider it.

Suddenly, school is looking pretty darn good. In fact, I can hardly wait to not have to worry anymore about the summer care arrangements and just settle back into a normal daily routine again. I wonder how long that feeling will last before I am back to the hating homework, projects, agendas ... From past experience, I would have to say it won't take long.

Funny (or maybe not so funny), I go through this year after year. I will be glad in a couple of years when I no longer need to worry about full time summer care, when our son is old enough to just stay home on his own. However, my guess is that will simply lead me into a new set of problems and worries. When does it ever end?