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Health & Fitness

Back to School - A Noisy Tradition For Parents Everywhere

Some mothers are sad, others are happy, but all of them are affected by the first day of school!

It’s been a noisy few months in Manchester.  In springtime, the noise began with the dog next door, who barked at each and every squirrel it saw (two words: Bark Collar!).  Each morning, the dog trotted out and began its verbal assault on any one of the hundreds of squirrels it spied in the tall old oak trees looming overhead. 

Fortunately (I guess) our spring lasted about a month and then immediately went into summer, driving everyone, including noisy, furry beasts, into the air conditioning.  So for a few glorious weeks, the barking was sporadic at best.

And then came the cicadas, those nasty, red-eyed flying creatures that created a deafening crescendo and attacked innocent residents on their daily walks through Manchester Park ().  The noise grew louder as the day went on, and it became necessary to put in earplugs and grab a tennis racquet to defend myself as I bravely made my way to the mailbox and back. 

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Add to this the sound of several teenagers roaming through the house at any given time (whose impending arrival was announced by thumping car stereo music that imperiled the fine china and frightened the cats) and this domestic goddess was in need of noise cancelling headphones, or a nice long vacation far, far away.

But last week, a different noise invaded Manchester.  It started early on Tuesday morning and continued to grow…at first, it was a quiet noise, such as a muffled sigh or muted applause, but as the week progressed, it became louder and more defined and spread throughout the community.  By week’s end, I had heard it at Kohl’s, and at the grocery store, and in line at the post office.  It was the sound of mothers celebrating the beginning of the school year!

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Twenty years ago, we had just moved into our home, and I was a young mother, full of rosy visions of the future.  My stepdaughter Ashley, stylish in her new pink dress and  toting a backpack full of supplies, was excited about starting the third grade at her new school.  So on that sunny late summer morning,  I loaded her little sister into the stroller and we began the four block walk to Sorrento Springs Elementary. 

After a hug and kiss from me, (at this point parental public displays of affection were still welcome and  I was still a couple of years away from being a complete and total embarrassment to her) Ashley  disappeared into the school to begin her next great adventure.  I looked down at my ten-month-old daughter, felt a pang of nostalgia and realized someday it would be her turn to walk through those elementary doors and leave me behind. 

A block away from the school, I witnessed the most horrific, unspeakable act of “bad motherhood” I had ever seen.  Like two football players celebrating the completion of a game-winning Hail Mary pass, these women actually jumped in the air, high-fived and grinned at each other like Cheshire cats. “Free at last!”  I heard one of them gloat.  “Want to meet for lunch?” 

I couldn’t believe what I had just encountered, and I couldn’t push that stroller away fast enough.  How could anyone, especially a MOTHER of all people, celebrate such a heart-wrenching day?  What kind of people lived in my neighborhood?  Shaking my head sadly and feeling sorry for their children, I made my way home, comforted in the knowledge that I would never to be one of THOSE mothers. 

Fast forward two decades, add a son to our family and try not to notice the bruising I have taken from falling off of my high horse.  Smugness has turned to understanding, wisdom and the intense longing to have the house to myself. 

So yes, I admit it.  I am now one of THEM. 

I contributed to the noise pollution last week by performing  a happy dance comprised of a fist pump and a “woo hoo!”  as my son and his friends drove off to begin their junior year at .  Nostalgic?  Yes.  Sad?  Hardly. 

All three of my children are well on their way to their own successful lives, and I'm enjoying having the time to do some things for myself.  So, anybody want to do lunch?  I can meet you right after I drop off something that my son forgot to take to school this morning...here comes another noise...HEAVY SIGH!

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