The Anxious Mom Waits: An Ode to the End of the Summer

Hey y’all! I have a question. Are you an anxious Mom? I know I can be sometimes. But the anxious Mom that I’m talking about right now is not the one that is scared every day, that is stressed about the household chores, or the one that is frazzled from so many activities. Today I am talking about the anxious Mom that is waiting. What is she waiting for? For school to start!

Today’s blog post will be in a bit of a different form. I hope you enjoy!

The Anxious Mom Waits

The Anxious Mom waits.

What does she wait for, you ask?

She waits for the calendar to change,

and for late summer nights to change to

early mornings.

The anxious Mom waits for

excitement

and dread all at the same time.

She is excited for

quiet

while they are excited to see

their friends,

but dread the long days at school.

The anxious Mom waits.

She waits for

freedom.

Quiet days where she can

clean or work in peace,

where she can go to Starbucks

without someone saying,

“I want a cake pop!”

But then she waits

for them to come home,

missing their giggles during the day.

The anxious Mom waits

to know that they’re back at home

and safe.

It’s such a funny feeling

being the anxious Mom.

You want them to go,

but then

you want them to come home.

-Meg Flint

Are You Waiting?

So yeah, I haven’t written a poem in AGES. I graduated from college (for writing) 13 years ago and probably haven’t written a poem since then, so I’m going to go ahead and say that it wasn’t that bad. I’ll be honest…I wrote it in about fifteen minutes and decided to just go with it. Bold move, right?

Do you get what I’m saying, though? I’m sure not all parents feel this way, but I seriously can’t wait for my kids to go back to school. I’m an independent person that likes a lot of alone time, so being a stay-at-home Mom can be very hard for me at times.

But here’s the funny thing…at the same time I don’t want them to go. I do want them to go and meet friends and learn. But the world is so scary now! It’s a dreadful feeling knowing that there’s nothing you can do to stop them from needing to go out into the world. So yeah, while I’m ready for the rugrats to get out of my hair….well, I’m also ready to make sure that they’re safe at home.

Are you the anxious Mom (or parent in general)? I know I’m not alone in my mixed feelings. We have just a little under 4 weeks until school starts. And until then I think I’m just going to have to keep on keeping on and not pull my hair out. Haha!

-Meg