This has all been a terrible mistake: having children, signing them up for summer things—all of it. I was going to give a sample of today’s schedule so you could rear back in dismay, but I realized it doesn’t look so bad when it’s written down. So what if I have to drop off the first two kids before 7:00, the next at 8:00, and the next at 9:00, picking up the first two between the 8:00 and 9:00 drop-offs? That’s not so bad. But such a schedule doesn’t take into account the WAVES of breakfasting and sunscreening and lunch-packing and form-remembering and do-you-have-your-towels’ing. Nor does it take into account the way I keep FORGETTING WHAT I’M DOING, so that it dawns on me in a sudden rush that, wait a second, if I’m dropping off one kid for piano lessons at 2:30 and a second kid for piano lessons at 3:00, that’s going to put a cramp in my “needing to pick up a third kid at 3:00 on the other side of town” style. And then, wait, when the second kid needs to be picked up at 3:30, I need to be picking up the fourth kid on the other side of town.
In short: o_O’
(The apostrophe is a sweat droplet of stress and befrazzlement. Also of heat.)
Well. Anyway. In happier news, I watched the first movie I’ve ever seen that was in DUTCH.
(photo from Amazon.com)
It’s called Bride Flight, and the cover makes it look soapier/shmoopier than it was. But it’s a little soapy/shmoopy. It’s about three Dutch women coming to Australia in the 1950s to meet up with fiancés/husbands, and about the Channing-Tatum/Carey-Elwes-style guy they meet on the plane over. There are a couple of Big Nudity/Sex scenes, but kind of artsy/pretty rather than horrifying/porny. Oh, wait, there’s one “up on the kitchen counter” scene that is more the latter, but it is mercifully brief. I liked the movie and would recommend it, but I feel like I’ll have to watch it again for the second storyline (when the characters are all old) to make sense: I couldn’t keep them straight until most of their story was over.
I didn’t necessarily have a comment about this, but I just wanted to say that I love reading when ever you post.
That being said, I only have 2 children, but I have to set alarms on my phone for picking them up so I don’t forget(!)
My blog feeder previewed your post as “This has all been a terrible mistake: having children” so I was greatly relieved to read the rest and realize you weren’t regretting what I thought you were regretting. As wonderful as summer is for adults, that’s how terrible summer is for the parent of children and tweens. Pandemonium marinated in sweat. Hang in there.
Well, shoot! Please edit that to read “As wonderful as summer is for CHILDREN….”
Year-round school is looking better and better to me, as the summers with my two get more and more complex. I am REALLY not good at schedule changes and lunch packing and gear assembling and ZOMG the sports laundry (wait, they get ONE camp shirt and they are supposed to wear it EVERY DAY to camp M-F? Did…the tuition pay for a Laundry Fairy to come to my house all summer, too?!) My husband and I both WOH full-time, so on the one hand, we are not the actual people dealing with the dropoffs and the pickups most of the time, but on the other hand, every day is a new patchwork of coordinating WHO is doing WHAT and what is the BACKUP and oh, look, a RAINOUT, and…MISTAKE. ;)
June is almost over. Two more months to go.
I’m sure I could I google this or maybe the cover said this but is the movie in English?
It’s mostly in Dutch, with some English; it has English subtitles.
If it makes you feel better I only had to get as far as “I have to drop two children off before 7” before it sounded absolutely horrific.
Agreed. Sound like a crazy schedule.
“So what if I have to drop off the first two kids before 7:00, the next at 8:00, and the next at 9:00, picking up the first two between the 8:00 and 9:00 drop-offs? That’s not so bad.”
Um, no, that is PLENTY BAD. That already sounds like that riddle where you have to get the fox and the corn and the hen across the river without any of them being eaten. Except here, I think you are the one in danger of being eaten (by stress and sunscreen residue) , and the fox and hen and corn are probably just fighting in the backseat.
Thanks for the movie recommendation-I enjoy Danish movies. I really liked Open Hearts, and The Royal Affair, both with Mads Mikkelsen.
Good luck with all the running around, that sounds like a LOT of prep work and stress.
I liked The Royal Affair too, Maureen. A bonus, painless history lesson is included with the drama.
And yes, Swistle, that schedule sounded awful to me too. The older the baby gets the more I’m wondering what on earth I’ve DONE to myself, having all these kids who eventually want to go places and do things! Simultaneously!
I really liked this movie. I read about it HERE after someone recommended it to you in the comments! You might Netflix Butter if you haven’t already seen it. I wasn’t expecting much – but I liked it too.
Oh! I was wondering why I had Bride Flight in my queue; it didn’t look familiar!
Portia hit the nail on the head. All summer I feel like the fox/chicken/grain riddle. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, what I really need is a driver. Someone has to get oldest to and from camp and to and from sports and youngest to and from daycare (which is nowhere near Oldest’s camp OR sports) so that H (whose work is completely in the opposite direction of both camp AND sports) and I can get ourselves to and from work at something like a reasonable hour. Tracking the various camps, sports equipment, lunches, sun screens, times, everything, is ridiculous and I only have two kids. I’ve managed to arrange a carpool to and from sports 3 of the 5 days oldest has to be there, but there is no carpool from camp TO sports or carpools for the other 2 days of sports. No carpools to daycare or to work. I am thoroughly sick of the car by the end of the Summer and probably near being fired for having a spottier work attendance than certain misguided celebrities by the end of every friggin’ Summer.
The only Dutch movie I’ve ever seen: Antonia’s Line. It was fantastic, though! A comedy about several female generations of a family in rural Holland, anchored by the unconventional matriarch Antonia. It was really good. It’s been awhile since I saw it, but I do think your sense of humor is compatible with it.
Also your camp/summer etc. run schedule sounds utterly exhausting. :(
Enroll all in one summer camp?? That seems like it world save you a lot of trouble.
I briefly fantasized about this, before adding up the cost. Can you imagine? *shudder*
And if day camps are mostly 1 week-long, as they are here, the pickup and dropoff time and place changes every week so you never settle into a groove. That’s my principal summer lament. Also finding one camp for kids ranging 6-14 would be a challenge. The one and only time I sent my 2 kids to the same camp the same week was when they were 4 & 9 and there was a nearby drama camp for 4-10 year olds. That week was 2 years ago but I still look back on it fondly.
I’m feeling your pain on the summer camps. I’ve put almost 300 miles on my car this week just driving back and forth between camp pick ups and drop offs.