WARNING: Having multiple school-aged children may cause your head to explode

For some reason, I was never made aware of this before I embarked upon this journey they call parenthood. No warning labels, no cautions of potential side effects, no alerts to the certain mental overload that accompanies these important years. Because had I known, I may have thought twice about the whole kid thing (ok, I probably wouldn't have, but a heads up would have been nice).

So let this post be my public service announcement to you: Be prepared!

Sunday night I sat down to plan and coordinate our schedules for the next six weeks or so. It was a nightmare trying to figure out who should be where at what time, when I need to be at the school for the many end-of-the-year activites, who's coming and who's going. There are talent shows, Memorial Day programs, field days, 4th grade parties and recognition assemblies coming out my ears.

Then we are adding in the swim team. A wonderful idea for Emma and Leah who are getting really good at swimming, thanks to Jenni Titera. Yeah, but they have 90 minute practices 5 days a week for eight weeks. What was I thinking? Andrew's old enough for baseball this year--sign him up. Except there are practices two days a week plus a game Wednesday nights. In Bay Village. And we still have good ol' piano lessons. Let me just say here that I am not an overscheduler. Never have been. I have never enrolled my kids in every activity under the sun like some choose to. They have all only had one activity each plus piano. But you multiply that by four, then by multiple practices, and it all adds up to a lot of taxiing on my part. I think these activites are worthwhile and important, and I am willing to do it, but I think it is going to be a bit of an adjustment.

Here's another adjustment....Emma and Leah graduating from 4th grade and elementary school and moving on to 5th grade and intermediate school. Why can't elementary school go up to 6th grade like it used to? Why are we throwing in a whole other school and building and schedule and way of doing things? I am not completely sure I am ever going to get it all straightened out, let alone the girls. And "advice" and "input" from parents who have already gone through it isn't always that helpful...it kind of makes things even more confusing. So I don't think I will be passing any specific wisdom I may gain on to you--it seems to be something you have to navigate and experience for yourself.

The fact that Emma and Leah are twins complicates things even further. I will not go into the details of twin dynamics in my family--that is a post in and of itself that I don't think many are interested in, and if you are, you already get it. Suffice it to day that I thought (until today) that we had things figured out as far as scheduling and together vs. separate, especially with the choir/band situation. Emma was going to play flute, Leah would be in choir. Perfect. Well, all of a sudden I discover that Emma also wants to join choir and Leah, who has shown no previous interest in an instrument, says she might want to try one. Now we have thrown another wrench into an already shaky situation. I told them that by the music program orientation meeting tomorrow night they both need to decide what they really want to do. With no changing. Because my heart can't take it.

When my kids were young(er) I always hated it when those who had older kids said "Just wait..." For what? I would wonder. My situation is stressful enough right now--I don't need to "wait" for anything. So I promise that I won't say that. I remember and understand and sympathize with everything mothers with preschoolers, toddlers, and infants are going through. But please don't think that those of us who have somehow survived and now have kids in school all day have it made in the shade. Oh, I know that having children who wipe, feed, dress, and buckle themselves and time to myself is a blessing that you just don't get in the early years. I have earned every minute of it, just as you are doing now. It's just a whole new set of trials and problems and opportunities to wonder if the decisions you are making are going to royally screw up your children forever, and chances to question if you really can do all that is asked of you as a parent. I don't think those circumstances ever change.

So now, if you find me surrounded by gray matter in a CSI-like situation, you'll know why. No need to call the cops, just make sure my kids get to swim lessons on time.