Schools

What Kind of 'End of School Year Mom' Are You?

"The emails coming in for All Of The Things -- class gift, end of year letters, luncheon signup, party supplies, awards ceremonies, pictures for the slide shows..." gripes mom-of-five Jen Hatmaker.

Written by Joan S. Dentler

As she limps to the school-year finish line with five kids in tow, mom/author/blogger Jen Hatmaker admits in her latest blogon Huffington Post, that she is tapped out. Gone are the nutritional lunches, the sharpened pencils and the completed homework folders.

"I haven't checked homework folders in three weeks, because, well, I just can't. Cannot. Can. Not. I can't look at the homework in the folder. Is there homework in the folder? I don't even know. Are other moms still looking in the homework folder? I don't even care," says Hatmaker in her plea to make it all stop in April.

Like many parents/caregivers (and most likely a good number of school staff members) the energy required to make this final burst of fun and productive end-of-the-year educational pursuits has been completely tapped out.

Hatmaker doesn't want to read another bedtime story or come up with another "about me" poster board. She seeks solidarity among other equally drained parents, and is somewhat comforted when she sees one kid coming to school on "about me" day dressed as his idol Michael Phelps, with little more than ragged jeans and a pair of swim goggles around his neck. 

"I'm so tiiiiiiiiired and I have five kids and that is just too many to educate well. I can only handle around two, so I'm going with Sydney and Caleb because they both like to read and the other three are just going to have to enroll in Life Skills Class one day and develop a trade," Hatmaker writes. 

Haymaker recalls the early days of the school year when used to care. She was awesome then. She rationalizes her slide into apathy by reminding herself that in a few short months she'll greet new batch of teachers and will dazzle them with her awesomeness. 

"Next year's teachers will get a fresher version of us in August, and they won't even know the levels of suckage we will succumb to by May. Hang in there, Mama. Just a few more days until summer, when approximately 19 minutes into our glorious respite from homework, liberated from the crush of it all, ready to party like it's 1999, our precious children, having whooped and celebrated and "graduated" and squealed all the way home will announce:

"I'm bored."

So as you make the umpteenth cupcake, scour the house for lost library books, and do one final check of the homework folder (or not), be grateful the end is near and summer is nigh. 

To read Jen Hatmaker's complete blog entry, go to 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jen-hatmaker/worst-end-of-school-year-mom-ever_b_3378480.html

Are you relieved the school year is just about over? What things did you let slip as June approached?


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