The bitter sweet end of summer

As I sit here writing this families everywhere are busy preparing for the first day back to school. New outfits will be laid out, lunches will be packed, and little ones will be filled with excitement over seeing old friends and the new ones they will make.

But as parents it’s a feeling that is bittersweet. I have yet to experience the emotion of sending my kids off on the big school bus, but this year I can certainly relate to that emotional feeling parents have on the eve of a new school year.  Tomorrow my family brings to a conclusion a very special time in our lives.

Having welcomed our daughter Elizabeth at the end of June, my husband was off for the summer on parental leave. Tomorrow when all the kids board onto the bus to school, my husband will board the train back to work in the city. I had promised both myself and my family that I would take it easy this summer. After heading back to work immediately with my son and working around the clock up until I went into labour with my daughter I needed some rest. Needless to say that lasted about 5 minutes.

Coming from a family of 5 kids, when my parents had my brother I remember they didn’t skip a beat and went right back to family trips and outings like it was nothing. I was only 9 years old at the time and I didn’t fully appreciate just how much of an undertaking it was to haul around 3 busy girls and a newborn. But I figured if they could do it with that many kids surely I could do it with 2! And that’s just what we did.

This summer marked a lot of first for us; from our first overnight trip with a toddler and newborn at an amusement park, my son going on his first camping trip with his cousins, and ending our summer with a day at the races. We had a fun filled family summer and created a lot of memories along the way.

Although it certainly feels a tad bittersweet at the moment to be saying goodbye to a very special summer, I can’t help but be filled with joy that we were so fortunate to have had the time together that we did. So as all our social media newsfeeds fill up with the back to school photos tomorrow morning, let’s take some time to appreciate all that we shared with our children this summer.