Joys of School Holidays

It's an old tale I know.  Mom has kids home from school for holidays.  Kids go crazy.  Mom goes crazy.  Shoots up post office.  Film at 11.  I know. 

But dear GOD, are you kidding me?  This is child rearing?  Listening to Teddy and Connor argue the finer points of proper driving skills while playing Need for Speed on the Wii?  Get serious.  I keep turning around and shouting, "Unless you're playing for money, there's no need to shout and call names"  Unless it's me...then I get to shout and call names all I want.  Price they pay for me NOT using the really good drugs during childbirth.

I must say, this is yet another reason why I'm glad we're not in the States anymore.  Summer holidays are 6 weeks here.  BOOM!  That's it and they are back in school.  I could.not.survive. 3 months off.  Nope, I wouldn't make it.  I would end up on the news.  I'm just not one of THOSE mothers.  The ones who go on and on about how they live for their kids and cry when they go back to school.  I grew up with one of those moms and believe me there is a down side.  Most people never think of this but moms who tell their kids how much they live for them should know that the kids believe them.  In my case I grew up thinking that I was responsible for my mother's happiness and every time I screwed up I "damaged" her in some way.  I would be panic struck about doing the right thing and making sure I did things so Mom could be happy.  It really had a negative impact on my life.  I know that only I can let myself feel guilty...but I do feel guilty about the impact of my moving had on my mother's life and her death.  I shouldn't be because I do have as much a right to have a life as the next person but growing up knowing that if I was sad, my mother was sad did change me.

I'm not doing that to my kids.  I love them.  I care about their happiness; I want them to be happy.  But the'll never hear,"I don't want to live without you" or"I live for when you're home"  I don't do everything I possibly can for them.  I'm the evil troll mom who never carries their kids' backpacks.  No kid is leaving my house not being able to sew a button on shirt, do a load of laundry, cook a meal (albeit a crappy one if I teach them) and change a tire on a car...which I still haven't done.  My point today is that seperation can be a good thing.  Why does saying, "I want my children to go back to school so I can have peace in quiet" make me a bad mother to a lot of people?  I don't ever want to live for my kids and therefore die without them.  They shouldn't ever have to worry if messing up in school is going to ruin my life.  They should worry that messing up in school is going to make me end theirs.

Of course, if I don't get away from this damn Wii game some endings may be in order...