Back to School, Fresh Start for everyone!

Any parent knows that Labor Day means Back to School. This is a joyous day for parents, who are ready to the house to be quiet again, but kids dread the day as the new "imprisonment" begins. I just never really understood this view, because I recall as a child actually looking forward to school starting! I remember looking forward to seeing all my friends again because during the summer I hardly got to see them! Call me a nerd, but I actually liked school!

Now, as a parent, I look at the start of school differently! There are many things about back to school that are great, but then there are the not so great things! Like school shopping! Now I do only have the one child, but sometimes I feel link I am shopping for 5! I swear the list of Back To School Supplies grows each and every year. And the items on the list are getting more and more expensive. I am just glad that I have a few more years before I have to buy him a calculator for school! Those things are getting scarier as the years go by! What happened to the simple calculators? Now they have more buttons on them that my laptop computer! But I am sure that will change before long and I will be out buying him one of those!

As far as the rest of the supplies go, I guess it could be worse, but it just seems like it is never done! As a mom, I am always out save a buck or two, but back to school shopping is a nightmare! You check the store sales flyer's for the sales, but NEVER can get everything you need, on sale at one store. If you want to get all your shopping done in one day, AND save as much money as possible, you are required to drive to 4 different stores in 3 different parts of town, only to find out that half of the stuff that you need to sold out already! Each year it is the same thing... at what point does all the running around become more costly than the school supplies that you are buying! Especially with gas prices these day!

I think we finally have all the items on the back to school list!

Clothes shopping is an entirely different story! I swear each year I have to buy a whole new wardrobe! It will be nice when Darrin actually stops growing as fast as he is now! I will probably save a small fortune each year! The first order of business this year... go through the entire closet to see what actually still fits and what needs to find a new home! This entails trying everything on to see if it really does fit, sorting the too small stuff into its own pile/box/bag and taking a good look at what we are left with....

TWO days later, we finally are through everything. Now keep in mind that Darrin has a Grandmother that buys him clothes all the time when she finds stuff on sale or clearance. He has ALOT of clothes! By the time we are finished going through everything, we have 2 garbage bags PLUS a laundry basket FULL of stuff that no longer fits! Some of the pants were still BRAND NEW with the tags still attached! I have already had one friend go through the stuff for her son, but unfortunately there was not a lot in there that she found would fit her son - he is growing just as fast as Darrin! So now I have 2 other friends that are going to come over and go through the stuff! I need my laundry basket back! I was thinking about doing the ebay thing with his clothes again, but I just don't have the time to do it right now, and I would much rather give them to friends, who I know can really use them! Some will probably end up at Goodwill once all is said and done!

Ok, so the closet is gone through... What is left? Well, after pulling out all that stuff that is too small, we are left with a closest that is still have half full of nothing but shirts! Dress shirts, t-shirts, sweatshirts, long sleeve, short sleeve, you name it, it's in there! Notice anything missing?? Yup, you guessed it....

Pants!

My child has no pants that fit him. Well, almost none. He is left with 2 pairs of shorts, 2 pairs of jeans (none of which are going to fit him much longer) and a pile of sweatpants and wind pants. I guess we are going shopping for jeans..... oh yippee! And shoes... he has 1 pair of tennis shoes that are ok, but who knows how long they will last.

Shopping for jeans would be fine and dandy, but finding ones that fit him... not so easy. We can never find ones that fit everywhere. thankfully I have a mom who is a seamstress, but she lives 2+ hours away! Shoes.... I just refuse to pay $75 for a pair of shoes for a 9 year old that will look like they have been through the war within 1 week.! It is going to be a fun day!

We actually got really luck this year with the clothes shopping! We hit 2 stores (and the first one we didn't even try anything on so does that really count?) Gotta love Wal-Mart! An hour later we were walking out the door with everything we needed! 1 more pair of shorts (living in WI you know you can't wear shorts to school to long after school starts - just gets too cold) and 3 pairs of jeans! Now granted all the jeans will need to be hemmed, but that is what Grandma's there for! But we found shoes too!! Everything in one place and I didn't have to break the bank!

Back to school... yes, as a perent I look forward to it, but next year can we just skip the "Getting Ready for Back to School" part of it??