With 12 continuous days off, you would think. . .

Question for 2013:
How early is too early?

In this household, we're getting ready for back to school and back to work early tomorrow morning, after 12 continuous days off. With all this spare time you'd think I'd have come up with some original material for my blog, but no. Instead, I beg your pardon as I repost this piece that was published by the  lovely people  at LivingLutheran.com (especially my editor Jan Rizzo) in August 2012, right before that other back to school time. My New Years Resolution: get up even earlier to write. I know, you'll believe it when you see it. Me too. Cheers!

Of notebooks and daydreams

Back to school shopping has evolved in our household.

This year we bought notebooks with a front cover image of One Direction, a British boy band consisting of five irresistible mop tops. Last year our notebooks featured Justin Bieber, if you’ve ever heard of him.

The year before that we purchased brooding notebooks with images of Edward Cullen, the impossibly beautiful vampire from the “Twilight” series. And before that, we brought home notebooks depicting the Jonas Brothers, a family pop trio of cuteness and hotness. I’m sure you remember them.

I recall my own school supplies of long ago with depictions of Barbie, the Partridge Family, and yes, the Bay City Rollers.

The themes of our school supply purchases are like a child’s daydream. A backpack full of budding discovery. A locker full of emerging hopes. And a shopping bag of full-blown marketing to parents, for those notebooks also hold the dreams of mothers like me.

No matter who is pictured on my kids’ notebooks I still want the same thing and maybe you do too: We want our kids to have it all.

But there’s more to our parental dreams. 

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