I missed Family Night at Big Guy’s school yesterday, and I feel a little bit bad about that. Only a little bit, though, because it was the right decision.

The teachers had talked up Family Night – two hours of fun and games designed to help build literacy skills – all day at school Tuesday. The problem was, it ran from 4 to 6 p.m., with Boots’ soccer game scheduled for smack in the middle of that time.

“I can’t go,” I told Big Guy. “I just can’t do it.”

He whined a bit, because “I can’t do it” is not something he’s used to hearing from me. He’s going to have to get used to it, though, at least for the next month of jammed-pack action.

• Monday: Big Guy’s drama class and Boots’ soccer practice
• Tuesday: Boots’ soccer game
• Thursday: Big Guy’s drama class, followed by his soccer game two hours later.
• Friday: Big Guy’s and Boots’ soccer practices. At least they’re at the same time and same place.
• Saturday: Big Guy’s and Boots’ soccer games.
• Sunday: Catching up on everything we dropped in the mad rush from here to there.

That leaves only Wednesday to do nothing. Or, at least, we would be doing nothing except the guys always have a long list of things they want to do.

Can we go to the baseball field? Oh … no, I want to watch the “Batman.” Oops. It’s Teddy’s birthday – we have to make a cake. And with as many Teddys as we have around here, it’s always someone’s birthday.

And then there’s the list of “should do’s.” One mom, dismayed that Big Guy’s school operates on a shortened schedule, plans her own academic projects every week because “California’s curriculum just isn’t as demanding as” XXXX state that she just moved from. I need to do that, too. I can’t have the guys intellectually cheated because they don’t live in XXXX state.

It’s not the harried kids. It’s the frazzled parents. But active kids suffer less stress while their parents are deployed. Where the heck is the line between their “active” and my “frazzled”? When does “active” become so overbooked they need a PDA to calendar their schedules. “Calendar” isn’t even a verb.

Oooh. Calendar. That gives me an idea. I can redo the wall calendar to book in leisure time every day. I’m sure there are some stray minutes between homework, dinner, soccer, the baseball field, Batman, spontaneous erupting birthdays …

Stop, stop, STOP.

The fact is, right now there aren’t any stray minutes. Except on Wednesdays. Blissful, underbooked Wednesdays.

Sorry, guys. No baseball field today. I’m taking the afternoon off. And tomorrow we’re going to have a talk about what’s really important, because we simply can’t do it all.

Copyright 2010 Debra Legg. All rights reserved.

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