Saturday, August 29, 2009

School

Oooooh. School is back in session. It started on Monday. I have been excited for a couple of weeks, and I'm not attending school at this point in my life. I do have two children who do attend school, though. I love them dearly, I want to point out, so that nobody can claim otherwise. But I can't deny that I couldn't wait for school to begin.
Listen: I'm faced with both an Age Gap and a Gender Gap. What that means is my son (older, male) is not interested in the same television shows as my daughter (younger, female) is. That's logical. That's fine. Until you have to hear about it. Then it's loud. It's annoying. It's annoying as hell, actually, especially when you take into consideration the fact that we have three televisions in this house. But we only have one in the living room.
Don't even think about getting them to give up the remote. It leaves the room when they do, if I don't catch them first. They've even brought it to the bathroom with them. They can't control the television from the bathroom. But neither can anybody else.
Our living room has just one television, but it has two couches (a big one and a small one, or, in decorator-speak, a sofa and a love seat). Even when they sit (that is to say, lounge) on separate couches there seems to be a battle. "His foot's in my way!" or "She's poking me!" or the ever-popular "He's (or She's) looking at me!"
I was one of six children who grew up with one television. As a parent, writing what I just wrote, I feel a need to say (as I do often, but not enough), "Mom, Dad, I'm sorry."
I love my kids, but I am glad that they're back in school. School can provide so much more structure than I can realistically provide. They're spending time with their peers, and that helps keep things calmer. The routine is helpful. I'm glad they're back at school.
But this morning, Ellie kissed me goodbye, got on the bus and sat down and started talking with her friends.
She didn't even wave out the bus window.

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