As other parents are happily checking items off their children’s back-to-school lists and looking forward to a life of structure once again, I am over here sobbing as I look at the calendar.
Why am I dreading back-to-school season so much, you may ask? Is it because I love my kids so much that I can’t bear the thought of being apart from them for seven hours a day? Is it because I dread the onslaught of paperwork and after-school activities?
Well, um, yes, a little bit, you caught me. (The paperwork in particular scares me.)
But the main reason that I am dreading my kids heading back to school is because this back-to-school season marks a huge change in our family’s life.
Our change is happening because my husband just took a new job, which means he will be out the door by 5 AM every day. This means I’ll be solely responsible for getting all four of my kids out the door and to school, which is over 20 minutes away.
Photo by Thomas Kolnowski on Unsplash
In our previous life, our children’s school was on my husband’s way to work, so not only was he able to handle drop-off, but he was also around to help get the kids fed, dressed and out the door. I enjoyed the comfort of simply having my husband there in the morning to drink a cup of coffee with me and start our day together. And because I work from home, I accomplished a large chunk of my workday in the early hours of the morning, assured that my husband would be there to tackle any stray children that happened to wake up before their alarms.
While a job change that will take my husband away from my family early in the day might not be a big deal to other moms, to me, it’s a huge deal to me, because it changes everything about my life, my morning routine, and how my day goes as a result.
And to be completely honest with you, I just don’t know if I can handle it.
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