Dealing with the "back to school" issues is even more painful than the actual school year

Here we are about a month away from the start of a new school year and already I’m in a tizzy – while the gents of the house while away the summer days in relative comfort and idleness.  


Here's a small peek at what I've been doing all week: 

• Struggling to remove Latin from the upcoming schedule?  Mom’s job.  Done, while casting the evil eye at the child who thought that taking Latin on top of Chemistry and Algebra II would be a good idea during this most important year where transcripts will be sent to colleges.
• Selling last year’s textbooks for the maximum amount of cash in order to pay for next year’s textbooks?  Mom’s job.  Done, while wondering why the hell I’m paying for textbooks for a high school student in the first place – particularly since the school receives an un-godly amount of money from me 11 months out of the year.
• Haggling with the school over the fact that the schedule has not yet been posted – although it should have been done on Tuesday – so that I can procure the list of textbooks I still need to buy?  Mom’s job.  Done, although upon inspection the schedule still included the Latin class!  Arrgghh!  Back to the drawing board.
• Finally convincing the school to re-post the schedule sans Latin.  Mom’s job.  Done, only to discover that the textbook list isn’t set to be published until next week.
• Succeeding in looking like the pushy, overbearing mother to the school staff?  Done.

 
It’s a wonder I got any actual work done in the course of the week while trying to deal with these kinds of issues – which can only be dealt with during the course of business hours, naturally.  Hmmm, upon reflection, not much else did get done.....sssh, don't tell the boss!
 
That, of course, is just the short list of things to be done before school starts.  There is still much to be done – like convincing Man-Child to go through his clothes to see what’s needed for the upcoming year (major struggle, as apparently, he has far more important things to do, like sleeping till noon and watching tv).  Actually doing the shopping for said clothes, with Man-Child in tow since I have been informed that my idea of what a teenage boy should be wearing is dated.  Hmmph.  Never mind the fact that basically all he can wear to school is khakis and collared shirts - seriously, how far off the mark could I get?
 
There are still shoes to buy – which is a totally separate item on the list from clothes shopping.  Because he’s even more picky about shoes than his clothes – hmmmm, wonder where he gets that from……I guess it's true that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
 
School supplies need buying.  Haircut needs to be planned.  Figuring out when to buy the clothes – because OMG he is still growing on a daily basis and we don't need him outgrowing the clothes before school even starts!  Well-Child visit to have sports forms approved needs to be scheduled and dealt with (which, as an aside was done today.  Guess what?  My sweet little, bouncing, baby boy?  Is now 5'9 and weighs in at 219!  How did that happen?!?! I guess lifting weights really will "pump" you up.)


Yeah, I think I'm ready for school to start back now.  Even though that means leaving the house a full hour earlier in the mornings, because that one little hour?  It's much less of a time suck than dealing with all this.....