<p>I still have one starting high school, but already I don’t miss …
-Holier-than-thou parents who think they know all the answers, yet have hellions for kids.
-Rec league sports with evening practices - now they are on school teams which practice after school.
-Snow days were you have to work and they’re ensconced, zombie-like, in front of some kind of screen. </p>
<p>I’ll probably have more once S2 is ready to leave the nest!</p>
<p>SCIENCE PROJECTS!!! S had always good ideas - needed help with the execution, father going ballistic encouraging to make it bigger and better and later into the night, and it was always too big for the doorways.
And I love my kids and think they are geniuses, really, but I am so glad to not have anymore elementary, middle school and high school plays and performances. No school play or performance should longer than 45 minutes.</p>
<p>I concur on the group projects, sports banquets and just about everything else that has been mentioned :)</p>
<p>I won’t miss all the unexpected expenses - and I’m not done yet, still have one in 8th and 10th, but those “oh we need $5 for” or “I need to bring in $XX for such and such”</p>
<p>And coaching - I coached for years and years and now DH coaches S’s Basketball team but the obnoxious politics involved in kid sports from rec league to high school sports…</p>
<p>late at night notifications of a bake sale tomorrow.
getting her absences excuses for medical appts.
Scheduling of games- trying to find the field- far flung swimming competitions and stuck in traffic getting to them in the burbs.
Spending 3/4 of my day driving to/from or waiting for pick up.
Don’t get me wrong, I was mostly happy to do it- but right now? happy not to do it anymore.
Shopping for swim team off season so that we * had* to go to an expensive shop cause she needed it " right now", instead of maybe looking online?</p>
<p>While I still am an advocate for parents within our school district( the one that )spends money on things like a retractable greenhouse roof for a new greenhouse ( that they had to rebuild after the one that was located off site couldn’t be moved)
Millions of dollars spent enticing contractors to submit bids for work, on interactive whiteboards & on new buildings that have to be renovated 5 years later ( or less), but they don’t have money to get a math curriculum that will teach students enough so that they can graduate( or enter college) without having to have a parent with a masters degree or a tutor to get them through.</p>
<p>But knowing that my own personal children aren’t subject to the SPS whims anymore?
Priceless.</p>
<p>Can’t believe no one has mentioned the college application process. I enjoyed the visits but I could have done without the essay/recommendation/application monitoring.</p>
<p>Having to freak out over the school budget. Worrying what would happen to my kids’ education when teachers were being cut, class sizes were rising, etc. I’m still very supportive of our schools (heck, I work for them) but I won’t have sleepless nights worrying about it any more.</p>
<p>EK, you summed up the theme of this thread for me:
</p>
<h1>2D starts her senior year in HS on the 2nd. I will not miss:</h1>
<p>Trying to find the right band pants for the right daughter right before we have to be at school. (She took mine! No, those are mine! No they’re not!) Then finding that the zipper is broken in one of the two. TG for febreeze and an iron.</p>
<p>Back to School night with the 60 minutes of speeches from PTA pres, Booster pres, Sr Class Pres, ASB pres, and the Principal, ad nauseum. Followed by 8 minutes in each class with a 3 minute “passing period”. </p>
<p>Group Projects that always end up with one kid bearing the brunt of the work (and the midnight completion).</p>
<p>Forms - I’ve written down a pile of emergency numbers that never got used for a whole lot of years now. ANd the bleeping camp forms! I had to fill out the same really annoying form for a 3 day camp as for a 3 week overnight camp. I blessed the day I didn’t have to actually copy alll the immunization data from the doctor’s form to the camp form, but it’s still a lot of write.</p>
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<p>I posted this a couple days ago. Tomorrow we are leaving to drive 14 hours to drop son off for his freshman year. What am I doing? I am on the Kohl’s website buying …wait for it … black pants. The kid took a growth spurt sometime this summer and now has exactly two pairs of jeans and no dress pants that fit. I am a terrible mother.</p>
<p>^^LOL, lololu! Thanks for the laugh–apparently the “black dress pants gods” were angry with your previous post.</p>
<p>I still have one in HS, but I agree about all the forms, definitely won’t miss them. Another thing I won’t miss is making a nice meal, keeping in mind their favorite foods, only to have them cancel because they decided last minute to do XYZ with a friend.</p>
<p>I am having a good chuckle here.</p>
<p>Wouldn’t it be nice to know that all the things we stressed about weren’t really that important? I wish I could have seen the humor in these things when they were happening. </p>
<p>Band pants? D was never in the band until she was in college. She plays a cello for goodness sakes. But, she is a proud member of her band in college and called in September of her freshman year and needed white pants ASAP (= extra postage) for band. I missed out on all that in HS. Then I just went to every department store looking for a black skirt that was wide enough to position a cello between her legs. And as you can probably guess, she ended up wearing dress slacks to most concerts. </p>
<p>Actually, this thread just reminded me, I better check out her white pants or else I could be getting a call in a couple of weeks for a new pair…</p>
<p>I don’t like to cook so I’m in total agreement that worrying less about food in the house, what’s for dinner and who will be there is a relief!</p>
<p>My annual meltdown when buying the dreaded “school supplies”.</p>
<p>D goes to college in 8 days; S will be a HS sophomore this year. They have been away all summer (S at sleepaway camp, D working there) so I’ve had a chance to think the things I won’t miss (and didn’t miss this summer):</p>
<p>So much laundry (towels, etc.) </p>
<p>“Mom, I have no jeans for tomorrow!” (how am I supposed to know when you don’t bring the laundry down)</p>
<p>Asking: How are you getting home tonight? (and the negotiations about the curfew)</p>
<p>“There’s nothing to eat in this house!”</p>
<p>I still have to deal with the black pants issue - S is still growing like a weed (hoping that his black pants that were bought for spring concerts still fit because the Jewish holidays are coming up fast…)</p>
<p>The family room TV constantly showing ridiculous MTV reality shows. If I never see Parental Control or America’s Next Top Model again it will be too soon.</p>