Back to school … kinda sucks.

My grils (yes misspelled on purpose) started back to school on Monday. Wife hates the whole back-to-school thing. She enjoys having D1 and D2 at home. I like it as well, but to be honest I enjoy sending them back to school. Because it gives me a break … from all the drama. Teenage girls = drama in overdrive!

I like calm, peace, quiet, order and being alone. Don’t get me wrong, I love my girls and enjoy my time with them. But to be honest I really enjoy just being alone with my wife and dog. Heck if my wife was gone and it was just me and Shadow hangin’ out, I’d love it!

One issue I take with our middle school and high school is the lack of information. The elementary school publishes a supply list every summer and the give you plenty of time to shop. The other two hand out a list on the first day of school and give the kids 3 days to gather all their supplies. If they have them ready in one day they get bonus points. That’s bull-crap. Lack of fore-thought and planning on their part constitutes and emergency on my part (or my wife’s). Either give the kids a week to gather what they need or buy it for them and put the costs into their school fees (and don’t get me started on that topic, my property taxes are high enough because of levees and issues and what-not add-ons to support our schools it should be included!).

So Monday the girls come home and have to have all their school supply stuff together for Tuesday morning or they don’t get “bonus points” in each class. This meant I would have to make another trip to the dreaded Wal-Mart. And you know how I feel about Wal-Mart after my last visit. It’s too soon to go back to Wal-Mart. There’s got to be a better place. And then I remembered .. there’s a Staples right next to Wal-Mart! Bingo!!!  D1’s stuff was over $80 (special colored notebooks and binders and other crap) and D2’s was just over $70. Yeah it was probably more than I would have spent at Wal-Mart, but I got in and out in under 30 minutes (and that included my girl’s doing their usual restroom inspection while in Staples). Add to the Staple’s bill the cost of the “back-to-school” clothing shopping and we are looking at $600 to $750 and we still have not gotten the “school fees” bill yet. And I stress just a bit, not much, because I know there are others out there that spend that much on each kid. That was total for both girls. I think I might begin to understand my wife’s position on this back-to-school blues thing.

Yet … I think I hear a vacation day coming up in the next week or so … on a day when Wife works … when Shadow and I can nap all day long …. get  up and play in the yard or go to the park or hit the trails at Sugarcreek Reserve.

And that makes it all worth while …. 😀