In the past couple of weeks, summer has hit home. Long Island has transformed; going from a distinctly chilly spring to temperatures of over 30 degrees in a fortnight. The sprinklers are on in the playgrounds and the shops are packed with people frantically buying watermelons and suncream.
The school year suddenly seems to reached a pitch of crazed proportions too. Everything seems to be packed into the last fortnight before they break up: field trips, sports day, art shows. This calls for some creativity on my part now I am working from 9am-3pm every day at the moment. Yesterday I started working at breakfast time in order to get stuff done and be down at Littleboy 2's preschool by 9.45 to accompany them on a field trip. Having marched a bunch of preschoolers round the duckpond, I raced back to my desk an hour later to continue the work day.
Today was sports day, or Field Day as it's called here, at Littleboy 1's school, so I dashed down there at lunchtime to watch them playing relay races in the searing heat. Next week I will have to do a mad dash from Littleboy 1's end of term play and 'graduation' from kindergarten to Littleboy 2's end of term play and 'graduation' from preschool, which are scheduled within an hour of each other (luckily I opted not to work that day). I am lucky enough to work from home so, usually, I can wangle it somehow; how full time office working parents manage to go to any of this stuff I have no idea (and suspect that there is a lot of guilt involved).
The Littleboys are looking forward to the end of term now; it may be much earlier than in the UK, but there's no airconditioning in most of the classrooms at school, and they are coming home hot and tired. With the light, hot evenings, they want to stay up late and rebel at me trying in vain to maintain their 8pm bedtime.
A the same time there's something so promising about early June. Everything is still green; there are still the vestiges of blossom around, but the roses are in full bloom, the hydrangeas are just coming out and in a week or two, there will be fireflies in the garden. Everyone is still enjoying the heat, rather than complaining about it, the evenings are getting longer, and the year still seems young, rather than dying again as it does in the dog days of summer. Even switching on the airconditioners still seems like a novelty.
22 comments:
Searing heat during the day and long hot evenings sounds bliss. For the first year ever we have had endless rain and cold and thunder here in Oakland. usually the temps are balmy all year long. Agree, I don't know how working parents get into all this school stuff, but they do - you can't find a park within half a mile of our school on any given day...was it like that in England too?
Aiee - forecast high of 99˚F for Wednesday and 98˚F on Thursday. The kids are going to be miserable in school with no AC! Thank goodness I have an air-conditioned office!
I always remember the end of the school year in the UK as a winding-down - here everything ramps up until you collapse exhausted when it's finally over!
I mix home working and office working but diving to and from school for these things is definitely easier when home working. The alternative is using up vacation days or missing it completely which I suspect is what most working parents do.
My youngest is doing a week of revision and tests so we are looking forward to Friday when she (and I) can start to relax and enjoy the light nights and, hopefully, sunshine! nWe hit 25 degrees here twice last week, but it's down to 12 degrees again today. Exciting for the kids to have that long holiday ahead of them - happy memories!
No a/c? Argh! Miserable.
Today we are predicted to have 97 degrees, and tomorrow it's going back down to 70 and stormy. I don't know whether I'm coming or going.
Good to hear schools everywhere cram everything in...
June means start of winter for me so reading about watermelons and sunscreen sounds very holidayish.
I too thanks my lucky stars to be working from home for the same reasons
Here in Albania it was 34 degrees the day you posted (my birthday!) It has been unusuallyhumid & thundery every day for a mth. So we opted for an air coniditoned restaurant for my birthday meal, but drinks on the terrace outside before hand. Nothing beats sipping a margarita on a balmy June evening after the heat of the day, on a rooftop terrace. I am a Summer Girl & bracing myself for an English summer, & in fact many more as we move back home to England after 5 1/2 yrs abroad.
Hope that you get to cool off with a nice glass of wine in the evening after all the activity! There is an infectiously good feeling about the start of summer.
ALW - I never had school age children in London, so I can't say but I suspect you are right. Luckily here in the 'burbs there is ample parking for all!
Almost American - it's 10am and already 90F here. And inside the house, despite a/c, it's 77.
Kelloggsville - definitely easier when home working. The fact is, there is downtime at work anywhere but in an office it looks bad if you leave.
Diney - 25 degrees is perfect. It's too hot here now.
Expat Mum - same here. Record highs today, and then back to 70s at the weekend.
NB - so it's like that in the UK too?
Jenny - definitely a holiday feel.
PLIT - your birthday sounds blissful! I love summer too but I hate the mosquitoes here - makes me wish for a warm English summer.
Tanya - oh yes, we certainly do!
I love heat. Except when it makes people tetchy of course. And reading about people buying watermelons made me smile. Now Im homesick.
My daughter finishes school early July and as she has been going to school nine years you might think I would remember how busy June is EVERY year at school and yet it always hits me like a surprise!
Hope you stay cool. Im imagining you hooking up sprinklers to gardenhoses for kids to run through this weekend... :)
Oh to have some heat! We've had sun here but it is SO WINDY! Love your description of dog days, know exactly what you mean.
I remember the summer heat - and June being just lovely after the freezing winter but it's fleeting and before you know it you're sweating buckets. Our summer term at school sounds much the same - lots on the go all the time. I think the holidays are for the parents to recover
I'll show my age again to say that back in the 60s in New England there was zero expectation that parents would show for anything besides the Christmas concert held on a weekend or a high school graduation. Not even high school baseball or basketball games let alone grade school games. I wonder why such a huge cultural shift.
I just saw this article (it's two links, because one is just a jumping off point from the other) and it reminded me of your post:
http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/31/the-end-of-school-year-scramble/
http://chevychase.patch.com/articles/the-end-of-school-frenzy-make-it-stop
Now, what you haven't mentioned (probably because you have boys) is dance recitals. Keep an eye out. Within the next week you'll start seeing little girls around town (and bigger girls too) wearing sparkly leotards, buns, and waaaaay too much make-up. They're on their way to or from their dance school's recital. (You'll also see kids of various ages wearing caps and gowns on their way to or from their graduations, but that's not as interesting to see.)
AC??!! I switched on the heating today. After yesterday's torrential downpours the temperature has significantly dropped.
MIchelloui - of course, now it's the weekend, it's raining!
KM - Heat is good, but stinking heat is really unpleasant....
HOM - I think we all need to recover for at least a week - before camp starts.
Lynn - same here, growing up in the 70s I don't remember my parents coming to anything except end of term plays.
Conuly - thanks! Really interesting articles/posts and the comments were fascinating too. You're right, we don't have to deal with dance recitals but I have friends with little girls and have seen all their photos on Facebook of these events recently.
Met Mum - that's England for you!
Lucky you, it's suddenly turned into winter again here with torrential rain turning playing fields and playgrounds into rivers. Love the thought of frantically buying watermelons - roll on summer (please!)
That is some weather, sadly here we seem to have mislaid summer so are back to artic conditions and a monsoon
Enjoy the summer! I can't wait. xx
It sounds like you're doing a great job juggling everything - well done! It feels like we're limping along to the end of term here - the afternoon pick-up in 110 degrees heat is no fun at all and lots of mums are just counting days now until the holidays and the mass exodus back to cooler climes!
I just did the conversion and it actually came out as 117 degrees!!! No wonder I'm a melting misery on the school run- but AC in all the classrooms at least!
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