AJC > Sandy Springs > Blog > Archives > 2008 > July > 28
Monday, July 28, 2008
Get out the checkbooks, it’s back to school
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For the second consecutive year my wife and I are out of the back-to-school business in our house - but this time around I think I’m fully appreciating what that means more than I did last year.
Our son went off to college in the fall of 2005 and our daughter fled the nest last year. Because we were so busy with our final child heading for college I wasn’t able to stop and smell the roses, so to speak.
I always dreaded back-to-school time as it signaled the end of summer and the beginning of the annual cash drain that comes with putting a kid back into school. If we could recover the money spent on glue sticks, folders (with pockets and holes to fit into binders), binders, pencils, pens, calculators, tape, paper, index cards, colored pencils, gel pens and various sundry other things we’d live in the south of France, albeit with uneducated children.
I truly do not begrudge the money as both our kids got great educations. But it’s just strolling into a store and seeing an entire wall of book bags that says the clock is ticking down on summer and there are no timeouts left. Especially with school starting earlier and earlier. The message was clear - fun’s over, get your checkbook.
Not that sending kids to college doesn’t have its share of expenses, but somehow it doesn’t feel the same. Sending a child to college is a right of passage - a sign that an exciting new chapter has begun. They are stepping out into the world, not moping toward the bus stop.
Back-to-school just means a shopping cart packed to the gills with things that are going to have to be bought again 12 months hence. For example, I still don’t know were all the mechanical pencils went, but it seemed like they had a shelf life of one school day before they had to be replaced.
But I blame myself for the great pencil drain. There was a period where I traveled a lot for business and I always brought home the disposable pen from the hotel room. I reasoned that way when one of the kids needed a pen - voila - no trip to the store needed! Of course as soon as my desk drawer began to sag under the weight of all those pens, mechanical pencils were all the rage and pens were as welcome as a Barney lunch box.
So for you intrepid parents out there taking a second mortgage to load up for another year of school supplies - we won’t mention the PTA, booster clubs, annuals, parking passes, t-shirts, lunch tickets, locker fees, gym suits, etc. - I salute you. I have been where you have been and I feel your pain.
And if you need a pen, call me.
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