Hello summer

Today was the last day of school for the boy. Which is crazy. I believe that school should end in June, and start in September, rather than mid-August to late May. I don't know why no one in the school district asked me my opinion on this.

We now start our crazy summer schedule, in which I wake up early and work mornings, pick up the boy at lunch and deposit him at his new afternoon Spanish class. My workday is over at 3:30. Tim's workday starts around lunchtime. We both work into the evenings.

Why, you ask, are we torturing ourselves with this schedule? And will it really work? We worked similar hours six years ago (that long?) when we had an infant and had just moved to Texas. We wanted to optimize family time -- we couldn't bear the idea of leaving the infant with someone else eight hours a day. So we hired a part time nanny, organized our schedules to take turns working from home every other day, in overlapping shifts. I taught on campus Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Tim went into his office Tuesdays and Thursdays. The time constraints and stress of new jobs made us both focus and use our time very carefully. And it worked for us, for that little while. I still look back upon it as one of the hardest things I have ever done.

But we're trying it again. Tim feels strongly that a kid should get to play at home all summer long. I feel strongly that a kid should take swimming lessons all summer long. And we both thought Spanish immersion would be more interesting and useful than generic day camp. I suggested hiring summer help, and I suppose that's still an option. But Tim wanted to try it on our own first. So here we go.

Hello, summer.

Goodbye, non-essential personal time.