A New Start for a New School Year

It is that time of year when children young and old get ready to go back to school. I love all the back to school sales and supplies. My office manager has forbidden me to buy any more sharpies, (they come in such great colors), or post it notes for a year (ditto)! All the notebooks and pens seem like a new beginning, a new start of the academic year. Most parents are ready to see their kids off to school and resume a regular schedule. Most teachers welcome the new school year as well. So what happens when the school year commences?

Many schools send a list of supplies that a child should have to start school. College kids get their book list. The complaining and the whining from parents of the costs can be deafening. The costs dominate conversations for weeks.

The airports lines through security quiet down after school starts. Cross town traffic in rush hour picks up as parents drop kids off and kids drive themselves to school. Parks around college campuses are busting out with kids on blankets and playing Frisbee.

At work, parents are calmer. They know where their kids are, whether at School, College or not living/visiting with them. Work related projects that had been on the back burner since June are now tackled with a new resolve. The daily routine is once again instituted.

It all sounds idealistic right? There can be a few bumps as we settle down to the new resumed schedule. What if that project from June is still boring or over your head? What if you miss your kids more than you would like to admit? What if you made some unrealistic goals for yourself, on the condition it will become attainable once school stats? What if you forget to check your expectations and delusions at the start of the year? Parents can become fierce and ruthless if they think they can help their kid get ahead. Any age of child or any parent! It can happen. Parents want the best for their kids and want to think the best of their kids. We all think our kids are wonderful and brilliant but sooner or later we remember no one, not even our own kid is perfect. Sometimes there is a delusionary cloud above some parents forever and their kids in their eyes are truly really absolutely positively with-out a doubt 100% gifted, fantastic, wonderful, kind, a natural and brilliant.

So who is going to burst that bubble? Not me! I suggest a compromise between the whining about costs, the delusionary talk of greatness and the to- do list, a more benign conversation about new beginnings.

Do you catch that fresh start of the school year new attitude for your work or your life?