March 28, 2024

School bells ring, are you listening?

“And mom and dad can hardly wait for school to start again … it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.”

I vividly remember hearing this song verse as a child and questioning its validity.

How could it be? Why would parents want school to start again? It sounds cruel.

Now I read it loud and clear, and I’ve spent these last couple of days singing it loud and clear for our kiddos.

Don’t get me wrong. I love winter break and being able to spend extra time with loved ones. Some things I miss — like occasional silence, for example, and sitting down.

I miss bedtimes and children who change out of pajamas before noon. I also miss occasional possession of the remote control — perhaps if I’m not waiting on my family I could be not watching football or the Disney channel?

Ideally, I’d like to be able to leave the kitchen and laundry room. These last couple of weeks seem like they’ve been a marathon of cooking, cleaning and constantly loading and unloading the dishwasher. I’m also fairly confident that although they rarely get dressed at a reasonable hour, the kids have used this extended vacation to try on as many of their clothes as possible in a 24-hour period.

I am slowly pushing us back to reality and to routine. The first step was taking down the Christmas decorations.

I don’t know if most kids enjoy the annual decking of the halls, but ours do. They rise to the occasion with the enthusiasm of The Rockettes. They all want to touch every single ornament and be heavily involved in distributing our decorations throughout the house. Exactly zero of them wanted to participate in putting them away.

I’ve never liked putting Christmas away, either. The house looks bare and less inviting in many ways.  But alas, it’s been stored away and we’ll do without festive décor until Valentine’s Day.

If you would have told me 15 years ago that I’d be decorating my home for Valentine’s Day I would have laughed in your face. Today, my favorite decoration is a wiener dog that sings, “Do you love me?” I’m not quite sure what happened to me.

These last few days of break have been infused with some simple tricks to get kids used to the idea that they will be returning to school. Reminding them often seems to do the trick, especially at key times like when they are staying up late or sleeping in. I’ve also been suggesting they do things like read and work math problems. You should see their eyes grow wide and their grips tighten on their electronics.

I am looking forward to embracing our usual routines in 2015. Homework, bedtimes and practices seem to keep our kids in balance. I know we parents also function better when we have set routines. I’m looking forward to working more normal hours (normal hours only partially exist for newspaper folks) and seeing all my colleagues with regularity.

I am anticipating 2015 to be a great year — but first we need to get these kids back to school. This snowstorm that’s predicted to dump around 4 to 6 inches of snow on Monday? Don’t even think about it, Mother Nature.

Contact Abigail Pelzer at
641-792-3121 ext. 6530 or
apelzer@newtondailynews.com