Summer is almost here, if we can make it through the stress of May | THE MOM STOP

A friend of mine recently shared a meme on Facebook that said “You made it through April. Welcome to May. Otherwise known as Jumanji Level 5.”

Parents who grew up watching the movie "Jumanji" or have seen the movie with their own kids know that Level 5 means all hell is about to break loose and it’s going to take a massive effort to make it through the game.

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The month of May, for most parents of school-age children, is not all that different. Between teacher appreciation week, field days, end-of-year field trips, end-of-semester concerts, school plays, graduations and teacher gifts, it’s enough to stress any parent out.

When you have two or more school aged kids, and especially if they are at different schools, it throws an entirely different challenge into the mix, since you not only have to balance different school events but also ones that sometimes happen on the same night for multiple children.

Somehow, when we decided to have three kids that were each three years apart in school, we never realized that we’d eventually have an elementary student, a middle schooler and a high school student all at the same time: three kids at three different schools.

Cue the fact that we have no family in town to help and our college-age babysitter/chauffeur is now gone for the summer, the month of May is just hard. If it weren’t for arranging carpool rides with other parents or depending on school bus transportation, I don’t know what we’d do.

It takes writing down our schedules on the dry-erase board in our kitchen and having daily “What is going on today” discussions with my husband to keep on top of it all. And I work for the school system ― I know if I were less in tune to what was going on inside my kids’ schools, it would be even more difficult to keep track of.

But to the parents and grandparents out there, we’ve passed the halfway point. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Just as much as teachers are looking forward to the start of summer, parents are looking forward to the end of the school year, too. It could be because of that Memorial Day family beach vacation they have planned, or the realization that they won’t have to keep track of all the spelling tests and  vocabulary lists or go over last minute homework with their student for an entire two whole months.

While my kids will go to “summer learning” and have a list of camps they will be participating in ― from space camp to scout camp-- it’s a different, less-stressful pace during the summer.

If we can only get through May.

So, parents, we are almost there. We are practically at the finish line. We are exasperated. Teachers are exhausted. And we’ve got that last gasp of air to make it to the end ― if we can just get through the end-of-school-year parties, spring fling, wear your pajamas to watch a movie on the last half day of school madness.

Almost there. Take a deep breath. Imagine you are at a pool with your kids. Summer will be here soon. And by mid-July, we’ll be counting down the days until school begins again.

Happy end-of school year to all the parents and educators out there. We made it, at least, almost.

Lydia Seabol Avant writes The Mom Stop for The Tuscaloosa News. Reach her at momstopcolumn@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: I'm singing those end of the school year blues | THE MOM STOP