College End 2019 - Daughter #2

My kids are coming home for the summer. 

Yep, once again, I'm going to be employed. Back to the SAHM moniker. At least, for three months. I don't remember doing so, but my friend Jim told me I danced around the breakfast restaurant when I announced that a few months ago. Since then, I've not slept. Seriously.

Parenting never ends. My mother told me this, but as I usually did when she offered up tidbits of advice, I listened and discarded or rolled my eyes or did whatever it was I did that WASN'T PAYING ATTENTION FOR MY FUTURE. My girls left the nest, and nothing changed. I still sent money, offered advice, and often said no, or yes, and I always worried. It was just done differently. 

Plus, there was the whole out-of-sight, far-away, can't-control-it-as-easily thing. 

Just thinking about their return gave me sleepless nights. First, I feel for them. Especially the college graduate. Coming back to the nest when you've been out on your own isn't easy. I didn't experience that until way after college, but I remember. 

Secondly, my house isn't large. To use my hall bathroom, you have to bypass one kid's room. I expect that place to have a made bed. How hard is that? Make your bed! Oh, believe me, she will. That's the first rule I'm enforcing. 

Lastly, there is that hall bathroom. It's their shared bathroom, and it's our guest bathroom. IT HAS TO BE CLEAN. That will be rule number two of my enforcement.

Daughter number two is finished, and we moved her out of her dorm last Sunday. It went quite smoothly. Darcy packed, Tom stacked, and the two of them carried while I packed and cleaned. Tom and I headed home alone as she had to finish work and take a final on Tuesday. Tom unloaded the car, and I frantically searched for places in my home to put her crap. Her bedroom was a mess.

She arrived home at 11:32 p.m. The next day she subbed as a PE teacher, and I didn't see her until 8:30 when she joined us at her grandmother's for dinner. Thursday, she was gone all day running errands because she left that night for New York City, where she will catch a plane on Sunday for a study abroad trip to Italy. 

In the day and a half that she slept in our house, it was like a mini Tazmania Devil blew through. I mean, I found dish soap in my library on my bookshelves! What the what?

Her flight to NYC was delayed due to weather. She didn't get into the Big Apple until midnight. Of course, I stayed up until she arrived safely to the NYU dorm, where she was staying with a friend for three nights. That was at 1:30 a.m. Hubby had long gone to bed, knowing I had the parent worry thing under control. 

By the time I climbed into bed, it was after two o'clock, and don't even get me started on the flight to Italy. She landed at two o'clock our time. I had just fallen asleep, so I didn't get that information until I awoke the next day to 20 text messages that, in essence, were about how she was vomiting in the airport and that her professor and the rest of the students were delayed due to more crappy local weather. Daughter #1 was, of course, awake at two o'clock in the morning and so she conversed with her. 

People, I HAVE NOT SLEPT. 

Until last night. Last night I slept fairly decently. Amazing what a great night of sleep will do. Look at me! Blogging! But you know why I slept? Because Daughter #2 is off the grid. I can't reach her unless I pay a fortune in overseas charges, and so until she's somewhere that has wifi, I'm back to the out-of-sight, far-away, can't-control lifestyle. Until she returns. At which time I'll have the first one too. 

I was getting used to retirement, and while I'm thrilled to have my girls home, we are in readjustment mode. It's time to establish rules, stick to my guns, relax, and get some sleep. Simple, right?