Julia Sims: The end-of-the-school-year homestretch

You would think we’d be entering that nice slow slide into summer, wouldn’t you?

Well, if you’ve got kids in elementary school, you know there’s no such thing!

Sometimes it feels as if every student performance, every PTA fundraiser and every school festival and field day gets crammed into the last few weeks of the school year.

The emails pile up: We need money! Please donate drinks! Don’t forget to RSVP! And then you add to that a son who tells you on Thursday that he needs a costume for Monday! (There’s a reason I’m an Amazon Prime member.)

Inevitably, I forget to put an event on the calendar. I misplace some of the urgent emails. And I forget to send in whatever requested party provision I promised to send in. Will always tells me he has it tough in school. He has no idea.

I’m sure there’s some logical reason behind this end-of-school year frenzy.

Perhaps they want to keep us on our toes and are just making sure parents aren’t asleep at the wheel. (By the way, this time of year, yes we are.) Or maybe the thinking is something along the lines of, “Look, we’re all on our last leg and we just want to liven things up and go out with a bang!”

Whatever the reason, most of us will show up when we can with a smile on our face knowing that (thankfully!) summer is just around the corner.

Julia Sims is the mom of one and a former reporter for WRAL-TV. She regularly appears here on Go Ask Mom.