We are having a rough time.

Wow, is winter break a terrible idea! Way to come up with terrible ideas, school system! Let’s take the bleakest, coldest, most hopeless week of the year, when it’s almost impossible to motivate yourself to do anything unless you absolutely have to, and give the kids some time off so they can sit inside with their parents and everyone has endless, unscheduled hours in which to argue! Let’s make sure it’s right when Alice and Eden’s book is due!

Okay, it’s possible the school system never factored my book-writing into their schedule. I mean, I guess. I do suspect they’re secretly out to get me, but whatever.

Note to future self: PLAN A VACATION FOR WINTER BREAK. Do not stay home! Do not forget about winter break, because it’s such an insane idea that you seem to scrub it from your memory each year, and when you finally do remember don’t decide to “just hang out;” do not envision hot cocoa and quiet playtime and cozy hours completing jigsaw puzzles! For lo, it shall not happen; the child will be in a midwinter funk and will only want to watch television and lie on the ground with his pants off (and then complain that he’s too cold); you will all be depressed and gritchy, and will fight and nitpick and whine. You will don the same pilly gray sweater and torn sagging jeans that it feels like you’ve been wearing since the day you were born, and you will look for a quiet corner in which to retreat, but the only place is your arctic bedroom, which is full of detritus and other reminders that you need to clean and launder and etc., but you don’t have the time for those things, so instead you will burrow under some blankets and write a blog post and snivel.

Next year, a vacation. Even if we have to sell a couple of kidneys to get it.

Comments

[Daily Cup of Jo]

Oh yes. "Hang out and have quiet playtime..." and I'd add "in front of a crackling fire." Except it turns out that only one of my three children thinks as I do and I'm left with two girls who bring whining to levels I never knew existed. Words I never want to hear again as long as I live, "What are we doing today?" Best winter breaks are the ones with PLANS -for everyone.

[amy marie]

misery loves company. and i love you.

[Tara]

Amen, Sista! I am so there with you on this one. Oh, and I'm sorry that you and I have visited that dreary place called mid-winter break. May the sun shine soon... for all our sakes!

[Springsteen Fan]

I'm right there w/you, Alice. NJ schools have the week off, too. My husband screams so loudly at the kids I can hear him when I'm walking the dog outside. Bad Parents. Bad-at-the-end-of-their-ropes-and-it's-only-Tuesday Parents.

[Vanessa]

We're on winter break too (a partial break for me because I could only take three days off work this week) and I'm fighting my daughter's desire to do nothing but sit around in her pajamas and play online while her DVD of CATS runs nonstop in the background. Today we went out shopping and had lunch, and then it was right back to Club Penguin and the cats. I could sing those songs in my sleep.

[Maureen@IslandRoar]

Good advice, remember to follow it next year. My 15 year old has some STUPID drama guild festival to attend and so we can't do a vacation this year as usual. I am SOOO mad. Getting away and usually to some warmth, is the only thing that gets me thru till June. Our vacation week is next week. I may have to lock myself up or I'll kill someone...

[Tinkersdamn]

We seem to be playing quite a lot of Lego Star Wars. I'm pretty ok with that, although I think the youngest is feeling left out.But yes, winter break blows. Esp just outside London, bc it's cold and RAINY. (And don't anyone think that hey, I shouldn't complain, bc we've got all these great museums and stuff... it's like NY... would YOU trek to a museum with your kids knowing full well everyone else and their germy whiney kids will be there too? No? Thought not)

[WendyPinNJ]

Amen, amen, AMEN! To every damn thing you and everyone else have had to say about mid-winter break!!! Glad to know I'm not the only one. And the snow here in the NY metro area? Enough already!!!

We are in Joisey and our district did away with mid-winter break this year. YAY!

Then, for reasons I will never, EVER begin to comprehend, THEY BROUGHT IT BACK FOR NEXT YEAR!!!! BOOOOOOOOO HISS!

As for getting away someplace warm and sunny this time next year--let me know who buys your kidney so I know where to go sell mine!!!!

And I have to ask, yet again, are you sure you're not me?

[Susan]

Maybe this is the wrong time to ask, but can you give me back my sweater and jeans? I'd rather not slum it any more with sweatpants, although I am pleased to note that I finally showered this morning.

Hang in there.

[Robyn]

Right, but who takes care of the kids when you're gone? ;)

[Emma]

And don't forget that your pants will smell funny because you're too cold to take them off for the length of time required to wash them, and you don't have a suitable back up pair. Seriously - running out the clock here in my house!

[Kari]

Stop sniveling and come to Texas! We could use a little Alice around here.

[A Mother's Thoughts]

Winter break was thought up by the rich for the rich. Where they can say oh, it's cold enough right now lets go to a warm destination. It seems to me that if the school system are going to have a platform like winter (March) break then we should be given an allowance. The school system should give us an allowance because really they are doing it so that the teachers can take a break. In turn this "break" is costing us money. We need to find a sitter, if we do work from home, we need to find activities to keep their mind stimulated (nothing is free) or actually go away, and by the time you have went on vacation, we as mothers , need a vacation!! We are oh so happy to return (even though they belong to us)them back to their rightful owners.........the teachers!! We salute you!!

Lynn

[bambooska]

Vacation is always welcomed in any time of the year. Where do you plan to go? Somewhere warmer? Brazil is a great option, and since 1 dollar = 1.88 reais, everything will be half the price here. Good luck on deciding!

[Jasmine]

Ooooh my!

[Mary @ Holy Mackerel]

I put my children to work when they whine. Even when they couldn't walk yet, they could shimmy across the hardwood on their hands and knees and polish. Damn right.

[CrazyLovesCo]

I'll have to remember those words of wisdom about winter vacation. Thank you voice of sanity!

[Beth]

Yeah man. "Ski week," where the rich go skiing and the poor scrabble around for child care. This year we decided to actually drive down to San Diego for a vacation, and boom -- my mom landed herself in the hospital. So, you know, try a preschooler, and a mom in a hospital that does not allow visitors under 16, and no school. Now THAT's a "staycation."

[Tinkersdamn]

I am SO with Mary@Holy Mackerel... to keep the kids occupied in the Eurotunnel the other day we showed them how to spit on Kleenex and buff the car. Kids happy, mom happy, Grandad pleased, 35 minutes used up NOT hearing "Are we there yet?".

[Jen]

Yup. My kidneys are going to up for sale soon. Because we are just getting over winter break (aka 24/7 fight zone) and spring break is just two months away. How I am going to make it through April is beyond me.

[Jan]

LOL. The perfect description of winter break. It's obviously meant to be a break for the teachers.

[Unplanned Cooking]

Laughing... we actually did take a winter break and it saved my sanity! Last winter I was home with a 4, 2 + newborn and was almost institutionalized at the end of it :)

[Emily]

Ah, this sounds just like my past few weeks.. and I don't even have any children yet (I'm a teacher)! My fiance and I went to open houses yesterday (not moving) AND he asked me if I wanted to go to the MALL (!?!?!) because the thought of being in our house made us physically ill. We ended up drinking at a bar. I was so excited to go back to school today, friggin hungover or not. F February.

[Kara]

Yeah, so I'm bitter, but my feelings about winter break have always been right there with my feelings about the "cruise wear" selections in stores around the same time. You know, for all those people who can afford a week or two in Hawaii or the Caribbean every February. Right? Is it wrong that I think this is terribly elitist? Or have I just had way too many "poor student" years so I'm jaded? Add to that the fact that I actually know no less than FIVE families who DID go to Hawaii LAST WEEK alone! Yep, I'm definitely jealous and bitter. But maybe that means the school systems aren't elitist after all, if it's that much the norm. Pfft.

[winsome]

So profoundly true! This is exACTly what my life is like!