When does school start? Just asking, for a friend … a friend who has children … children who are eating them out of house and home … children who are there … all the time.

For those parents sitting down with a fresh cup of coffee to quietly enjoy reading the newspaper, who are you? Where do you live? How do you do it?

Stephanie and I have three amazing children, who are smart, healthy and amazingly hungry. And God love Stephanie, who works from home. She provides better defense of the refrigerator and pantry than most goalies in the National Hockey League. But even her defense gets weakened over time, with endless calls for snacks, a second lunch and a pre-dinner from three children who I believe are storing food in a second stomach or their big toe.

Again, when does school start?

For students, they long for the “freedom” of summer. They look forward to no homework or assignments and the opportunity to go to bed late and sleep in late.

For parents, summer is also anticipated. There’s not the rush to get uniforms ready or to make sure folders are signed. There’s the ability to maybe catch a few minutes more of sleep rather than rushing out the door to get one child to one school and two others to another clear across town. We all know the traffic down Clay Street at the wrong time will completely wreck the timing of the crosstown race from one drop-off line to the other.

Again, when does school start?

There are just a few weeks left in summer and you can already feel the pull back to the school year sense of normalcy.

Schools and parent-teacher organizations have been sharing supply lists and stores are already displaying the latest and greatest organizers, safety scissors and mechanical pencils.

Yet, there’s still more than a month to go. There’s more than a month of sneaking snacks, late night bed times and trying to squeeze another trip out of town before school starts.

I know teachers, administrators and school staffs are milking every day of time away they can. Being the child of two teachers — who spent 30-plus years in the classroom — I know how tremendously valuable this time away is to recharge and refresh before another school year begins.

There’s something about the routine of a school day for both parents and students that makes you appreciate when that routine is broken during the summer months.

Then again, there’s something about the sometimes-hectic nature of a summer day, that makes you better appreciate the normalcy of the school year.

Again, when does school start?   

 

Tim Reeves is editor of The Vicksburg Post. He can be reached at tim.reeves@vicksburgpost.com.