Another Snow Day? Say What?

I am starting to SERIOUSLY worry about my sanity. School is closed - for the 7th straight day due to unprecidented snowfall in the Washington DC - Baltimore - I95 Corridor. We've had about 4 feet of snow as a result of 2 blizzards and 1 seriously overrated Alberta Clipper that passed thru the area in the past week and a half. At first, it was super-fun and exciting. We'd never seen snow like this in our entire lives. We watched the beautiful snow fall, wondering how much would we get. When would it stop? Would it ever stop? Would we ever go back to work? And like many of our neighbors in the Mid-Atlantic, we didn't care and we hunkered down, enjoying the quiet and one another and a stack of movies, hot chocolate, and the 800 rolls of toilet paper that we dutifully stockpiled when the weatherman predicted the storm of the century. (You have to live in Baltimore to understand that one.)

Then the snow was kind of a pain-in-the-but-when my husband and I (and by that I mean my husband) had to shovel the driveway and the sidewalk. And then it became a real pain-in-the-ass when we had to shovel paths IN THE BACKYARD for the dog and for Jack when we realized that the snow was so deep that neither the 12-year-old golden retriever or the almost 6-year-old boy could navigate thru the snow in the backyard. You know that you have WAY too much snow when you have to shovel it out of the freaking backyard. That's all I'm saying.

And now the beautiful white snow has turned black along the roadways. And the children have gone stircrazy. And we have watched every Harry Potter movie we own. And Bella has informed me that there is really "no point in reading any of the Nancy Drews that Nanny bought for Christmas because I flipped to the end of them all and I know how all of the mysteries are solved." Isn't she a good sleuth? And I have already gone to the movies last week and paid part of the mortgage on tickets and Sookie spent part of her mortgage payment on snacks - so we're tapped out. We're out of Girl Gourmet Cupcake mix, I cannot bake anything else because I have already baked 2 pans of brownies and they are not Weight Watchers friendly, OMG - it is snowing again as I type this, Sookie's kids have already slept over, we have watched so much Disney Channel I am afraid the kid's brains might have gotten a bit mushy, Jack has become some sort of Grand Pooh-Bah on Lego Rock Band and can now sing all sorts of songs like "Kung-Foo Fighting" and "We Are the Champions" and "We Will Rock You" in his adorable Elmer Fudd-ish dialect...and I'm beginning to worry that my kids are going to experience some kind of academic backslide due to this blizzard and missing 12 days of instruction.

What is WRONG with me????? WHY CAN'T I ENJOY THIS?????? When will this ever happen again? Why am I buying into this high pressure, high-stakes environment that tells us that our kids have to be engaged in learning and achievement ALL OF THE TIME if they are going to be successful? I must admit that I am feeling incredibly guilty that I didn't review ONE multiplication or division fact with Bella while she was off. Did I damage her in ways that I cannot fathom? Or did I give her a well deserved break? We did read - every single day. I swear we did. And today we are going to study for that Social Studies test that is looming on the horizon. And we will play some multiplication and division games to review our facts.

Sometimes I wonder if other parents feel as torn in half as I do. I want to let them be little and carefree as long as I can. I get so mad when I see Bella's homework agenda filled with work and test, test, test, test. I want to yell and scream sometimes when she is doing homework until 8 pm - "She needs time to PLAY after school!!! She is only 8 and a half!!!!" Won't she have the rest of her LIFE to work hard and stress out? But then I look at the TIMMS testing repots (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study)and I see that American students do so poorly compared to students in DEVELOPING nations and I wonder - do we baby our kids too much? Maybe we shelter them way too much. Maybe we hover and control their environment so much that we actually do them a DIS-SERVICE. Am I sheltering them from neccessary pain and suffering? Am I over-protecting them from the little dings and scratches that they need to suffer now in order to toughen up so that the big booms and bangs that are to come won't really damage them? Am I preventing them from developing neccessary resillience?

The answer is - I don't know. All I know is that I'm doing the best that I can. There has GOT to be a happy medium. I'm going to try to find it today. We will play a little, we will read a little, we will snuggle A LOT and then everyone will probably go back to school and work tomorrow. And our little mini-holiday will end and life will return to normal. Whatever THAT is in this crazy place! :)