I too retired from the lunch making biz this AM. I’m the early riser in the house; was usually up and out the door by 6 AM (pre internet) and so, lunch making defaulted to me. I am enjoying being home based for the last 8+ years, but the eyes still snap open by 6 AM without the benefit of an alarm. It allows an hour + of “me time” and coffee every morning.
After 25 years? I had lunch making down to a science. Like SOG, the variety lacked, but no one ever complained. I mentioned to DW “what are we going to do with the remaining 25 or so brown paper bags?”
I’m retiring from lunch-making for D15 by 6/4, but I still have S18. D will be up bright and early to get herself to her summer day camp job, but I’ve told her she needs to make her own as a life-skill learning opportunity. Fortunately, the camp is on a CC campus with food available for purchase if she has a lunch-making hiccup.
I agree with @suzy100, @IBTgirl. 18 is a lot. I would not recommend it unless absolutely necessary. I know a lot of schools require a Dean’s approval for an overload.
4 days until graduation here! I have never been so happy as I am to see wrestler’s public school education come to an end! Fruity drinks all around!
I hated making school lunches and turned that duty over to the kids when they started middle school (I know, mean mom!)
D graduated last night. The ceremony was beautiful and she gave a really wonderful speech. I didn’t cry either @HeliMom74, but one of her school advisers who has really become her friend was crying through the whole ceremony. She becomes very invested in all of the kids. I almost started crying when they did the slide show of the kids through the years.
So now she is 18 and a graduate! It was a crazy extended weekend with her 18th b-day, a graduation party, b-day party, and graduation. We went to the bank yesterday to change her teen checking account to an adult checking account, but kept it tied to our account so we can move money when needed. :-S D will not get to sign up for classes until the freshman orientation in September. She is going through the school catalog to see what classes she would like to have on her list.
I am in a strange emotional place, post-graduation. I thought I would be much better with this time, but it is really getting to me. I am simultaneously so happy for my girl to begin her next, most exciting chapter, and grieving over “lasts” and changes. Ugh.
Funny, it’ll be me who’s retiring from lunch making around here come fall and everybody else who will have to start. I’m sort of the head cook around here; my mom doesn’t do much with cooking. Not complaining, mind you - she does all the laundry, which looks infinitely harder to me.
The “lasts” are really getting to me…we had our last violin studio concert on Sunday afternoon, and I started crying when the first little one (4-y-o) got up to play. S is the teacher’s first graduating senior student, and he had played every piece on the program at one point or another. Somehow the little ones got to me the most (it was just 5 minutes ago that he was hiding under a chair at his lesson when he was 3, wasn’t it?), but I cried through his solo as well. Graduation is Saturday – he is pretty much just hanging out 'til then. I know I’ll be a huge mess.
I did all my crying when the litigation wars erupted, more than a decade ago. I feel like someone who sent their child off to a foster home or a long prison sentence, and is about to finally find out who they grew up to be in the intervening years. This is the most exciting and highly anticipated event of the century for me, more than the births of D2 and D3 (I’ve done the baby thing before, it’s awesome but delivery merely marks the beginning).
There’s not a single aspect of this development that I regret. None. Just incredible relief and joy.
I’ll miss lunch making also. I was pretty proud of my assembly line ability to make 3 lunches so quickly (that meant 6 sandwiches) while also making breakfast for 3. When my oldest left for college 5 years ago, I was sad the first time I only had to make 2 lunches. Then when number 2 went to college, I was sad having to pack only 1 lunch. I’m so not ready to pack zero lunches!
Maybe H would like to start taking a sack lunch to work!
The lasts are so hard! I’ve had the last band concert and the last music festival adjudication, which was the last time I’ll see DS play French horn (he borrows one from the school). He’s one of only two horns in the band and by far the louder, and he sounded so lovely. (The section got special kudos from the judges. ) Coming up: last Jazz band concert, last voice recital, last prom! Sniff
We do have one more month of classes before Senior week starts so I do have a month of lunches left. I’ve only put notes in sporadically and now I wish I’d done a lot more. Maybe it would be weird to put one in every day now, but I’m tempted :((
Mother’s Tea did me in…she ended her thank you card to me with a quote from a book I read to her nightly the first 18 months of her life…it still sits on her shelf today in her room
I was fine until I opened this thread this morning…way to go folks. I’m a weepy mess reading about your last lunches, Boy Scout COH’s, and French Horn solos ( DD’s Conn 8d still sits in the closet, a sad reminder of many sweet hours listening to her rehearse). We still have a few weeks left until the baby flies the coop for real…summers and breaks will be limited by military training, so I am going to enjoy every minute of his dwindling childhood. Thx for the reminder.
DH made a poster of photos from DS’s life so far. Just thinking about all the things that are gone (and all the things I don’t remember) brought it on. When was he a pirate for Halloween? At the time it was just one more Halloween costume, but at some point they ended and that transition was never even commemorated. So all of those things are now being commemorated as he begins his new adult life. The nostalgia is one-sided since on his Twitter he wrote, “First day of summer and already I can’t wait for it to be over.” Sniff.
Lucky for my parents I don’t have a graduation ceremony… just kidding. We’ll probably throw a party later in summer - it can double as my going-away party.
@SomeOldGuy, you may not be out of the lunch making business forever! S14 came home last weekend and started working at his internship. I have added making his lunch as I am already making lunches for HS daughter and my husband and myself. People tell me that my kids should make their own lunches…But the way I look at it is that it is a “gift” that I give to my kids. I really hate making lunches and I figure that once they are out of the house for real, they will have the rest of their lives to make lunches!
I’ve been weepy reading these comments and anticipating my own tears at graduation. @Hoosier96, your comment just did me in entirely. It brings back such powerful memories of those early days and I still haven’t accepted entirely that they’ve ended. Guilty confession: I still have Good Night Gorilla, Goodnight Moon, and Time For Bed (which always brought tears at the end and required multiple rereadings).
) Coming up: last Jazz band concert, last voice recital, last prom! Sniff