MomTime TV

I know...Abraham Lincoln walked 100 miles to school each day...(and so did my parents...) and I know that walking or bike riding is quite healthy...but!  

I’m just not so sure.  I worry about the kids that go on foot or scooter or bike or long board or some other way unaccompanied by a parent.

I’m lucky enough I can walk with my son.  And everyday that I do, I’m glad.  Not only do I have a few good moments to connect directly, find out about his plans, his day, what’s on his mind...but I can shudder through the heavy drafts left by the cars racing by.  It’s not supposed to be a busy street.  And it’s definitely not a major thoroughfare.  It’s just a simple road getting people out of the neighborhood and on to work.  Aaaah work...the place everybody is always late to!

So on the first half of our short walk, the cars are generally zooming.  The second half gets us closer to school.  Unfortunately on the side we approach from there is no 15 mph sign to slow people down.  The 80% who are dropping kids off at school slow down to make the turn, but they too are in a hurry.  And those fleeing the neighborhood who don’t have to make the turn...they swerve toward oncoming traffic to avoid the potential lineup for the turn.

Just seems like too much chance for error for me.  I’m not so much worried about predators as I am about drivers.  I also like the assurance that my son gets to school safely.  Because I’ve seen how careless kids can be.  

Before any of my kids went to school, that’s about 20 years ago now, perish the thought, I was driving past the same elementary school that my youngest attends and all his siblings before him.  School had just let out so I was driving by very slowly.  I was watching some kids head home on bikes and they were all racing and fooling around and happy to be let out!  Quick as a blink one of those kids fell off his bike right in front of my car!  Because I had my eye on those kids and I was driving slowly, I was able to stop.  The kid got up, jumped back on his bike & caught up with his friends.  But I was shaken enough to remember the incident crystal clearly all these years later.

When I drive to the middle school to pick my daughter up there, I am reminded of that time.  There are kids riding bikes out of every orifice of the school, as fast or crazily as they can.  They aren’t looking forward...or even sideways most of the time, they are looking backwards to find their friends.  I breath a sigh of relief when I’m done with that pickup, which happily I don’t have to do very often.  But I always wonder...do parents know what this after school scene looks like?  Do they worry the same way I do?

Or am I just a worrier warrior?  An over-protective, helicopter mom?

I’ve been on a bit of a book binge lately.  Pretty much I’m guessing, to the chagrin of all around me...including me myself.  I can’t get enough.  I’m trying to swallow up all the books of the world.  If I just finish this one, I’ll be done, I can get back to the work I’m supposed to be doing.  It really doesn’t help to be in the middle of four books.  Then I finish one and open another one to replace it.

It seemed to start innocently with me reading a few pages before I fell asleep.  Then we started to get up earlier to workout.  Never having been one to want to wake up to (hurt myself) workout, I decided I would wake up for a good book.  So now I pump the pedals of the exercise bike, book in hand.  Works like a charm.  Trouble is...it’s hard to let it go for the day.

There are still some days I have no choice.  There are places I need to be and things I’m obligated to do.  And so the book sits for a while.  But on the days where there are moments of decision...clean something up, write a blog, put something together, do some research...it’s too much of a decision for me.  Too much to chip away at.  Back to the book.

I’m not worried about this tiny little obsession lasting forever.  Too much of a good thing is always too much of a good thing.  Something else will surely come along to capture my interest and pull me away to a little more logical amount of time spent.  But I love to read and in the early days of marriage and raising kids, there were actually years where I read nothing at all.  Now it’s time to make up for lost time.  Time to enjoy a good story, good writing, new ideas and thoughts that have real meaning for me.

The kids went back to school today...or was it yesterday?  

Actually it was last week, but who’s counting?  Going back to school is a big deal.  No matter how hot it is, summer is over.  Everything is new.  Shopping.  New clothes, shoes, school supplies, hair thingies, jewelry, makeup, calculators.  Everything changes.  New classes, new friends, new schedules all around.  There’s a bit of magic around starting a new “schedule”.  It feels good after the freedom and randomness of summer vacation to tighten up and know where to be when!

So you have the excitement of shopping & stocking up on new things, the excitement of seeing old friends again, the excitement of new (schools), classes, friends.  More than any other time of the year, I think, it’s a time for renewal, reinvention, growth.  Whatever you did or did not do well last year, you can fix, adjust.  Whoever you were or weren’t or however you acted or didn’t act, you can adjust, reinvent yourself, become somebody different.

I tell my kids...the slate is clean, the characters are changing.  Whatever you didn’t like last year, whatever didn’t work for you, whatever you want to do differently...you can do.  You want to have more friends...be outgoing, talk a little more.  You want to get better grades...pay attention, work on details, do what you’re supposed to do.  You want to have more fun...get involved in new activities, go to some sports events.  

It’s good to be able to draw a line, set new goals and decide who you are and what you want to contribute.  Even though it’s been decades since I’ve been in school (my kids would call it centuries), so many of those feelings are the same for me, as a mom sending off all 5 of my kids back to school.  What will I do?  Who will I be?  What will I learn?  What will I contribute?  How will I make the most of this time I now have?  Granted it’s not very long before the pick ups and drop offs and additional schedules start, but there is some time.

My biggest problem, then & now, is that I always want to do too much, my eyes are bigger than my stomach.  I think I can cook & clean & do laundry, as well as work & read & write & workout.  I think I can meet all my commitments, set new ones and still have time left over.  Why is it we are always overfilling the available time?  What happened to swinging on the porch swing watching the cars go by.  Sometimes I find myself moving so fast I forget to cut my kids fingernails.  I forget the most basic of things.