If one more mother tells me how excited she is for summer I am going to slap her.

My anxiety level about summer is WAY to high to be nice at this point.

I love my kids, I do.

I love to be around them, do activities with them, and see them learn and play, but I have to be honest, I do not love to have them all home all day every day.

I’m convinced that the mothers that love summer have kids that behave, kids that sleep, kids that don’t communicate through violence!

When both my boys are home for extended periods of time, say more than an hour, they fight. And by fight I mean they SCREAM, punch, kid, bite, you name it they do it.

They get along great for a few minutes and then attack the next. You never know what is going to happen.

Add to it their very different personalities, one is great at entertaining himself, and one is… not.

One is ok with some quiet time and even the occasional nap, the other one doesn’t even like to pee alone.

One is ok going without electronics for days at a time, the other one begs for them from the moment he wakes up until the moment we close his door at night.

One of my children needs a LOT of structure to be a nice person. This works great in a classroom, but less so at home when he has siblings that don’t want quite the same level of constant activity. His energy level does not mesh well with that of his two younger siblings, everyone is tense all of the time because he is so irritated that they aren’t able to go go go all day, every day.

So I’m dreading summer.

I’m dreading the endless Texas heat that keeps us inside after 10am, I’m dreading the constant fighting, the lack of structure, and the whining.

I know I am whining, I know I should be looking forward to endless days at the pool, but here’s the deal, summer isn’t a break for mom.

Summer is more work, with higher temperatures, and even higher tempers.

So I am going to sit here and dread the end of school.

It’s ok you can judge me, I’m cool with it.