As a mom who is most fortunate to have the opportunity to work from home, I am able to spend quite a bit of time with my 15-year-old daughter during the summer. We hang out. We go shopping. We veg out in front on the t.v. and then... eventually... summer is over.
Every year it seems as if school starts sooner than it started the year before. This year it starts on August 8, which is tomorrow, and I have mixed feelings. After a summer filled with giggles, laughter, mother/daughter bonding and learning to drive (yes, she has her permit!)... I am exhausted!
I long for a quiet day when no one interrupts my thoughts or wants to drive me to the store. I long to strut around sans clothes and not run into the unsuspecting teenager with nose reaching the ceiling and eyebrows scrunched into a frown.
Inside my head I am screaming for solitude and what I want to do with my days, but I know it's all one big fat lie because even though I long for all those things I know, for a fact, that as soon as the door closes tomorrow and she gets on the school bus headed for her first day of 10th grade a lone tear will come to my eye. My daughter is also one of my closest girlfriends. She's my sounding board. My center. She's a great listener and friend. So even though I'm exhausted I will greatly miss her.
Well, only until she gets home in the afternoon with her incessant stories about the weird people who go to her school then it'll all begin again: Why can't I get some quiet!? :-)
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Comments: 2
I love your name! are you named after Petula clark! the singer who sang "downtown"?
anyway, what a nice article, as my daughter will be starting the 4th grade in two weeks i can look foreward to a wonderful time when she is older..already i try to have an open communication with her which is so important..what are your other babies , i think you mentioned in your other article more kids?
You look like you have a great relationship!bravo!
i have a group on gather called :"parenting pains and joys" ..we are on the list.
I feel the same mixed feelings as you about the starting of the school year which is August 21st here..isn't it fun though to get all the little things for school? cute erasers etc.?
I actually have three other children: the 1 and 2 year old and an almost 13 year old stepson!
I'll check out the group soon... being a parent definitely has its pains and joys. My oldest daughter and I are very close. And I have very special relationships with my babies. It has been a change having a husband with children because I spent 10 years as a single parent.
I must say that co-parenting also has its pains and joys, but for the most part I have found it to be most joyful!