Time Between End of Camp and Beginning of School Officially an Eternity

Old Bethpage, NY – Local parenting groups in the Northeast have officially determined that the three plus weeks between the end of the camp season and the beginning of the school year does not only feel like but actually is “an eternity”.  With seemingly no light at the end of the tunnel, many parents are struggling to figure out what do next with their children while exhausting hours of time and thousands of dollars.  What is most frustrating to everyone is that the end of the school year literally turns into the camp season with not even a day in between.

As the well-rested parents pray that the returning camp bus is stuck in traffic for a few more moments of sweet freedom, they know what is in store for them the second the doors of the bus open.  After huge hugs all around, it usually only takes between two and four minutes for the kids to start fighting during the car ride home and parents’ blood pressure to return to mid-June end of school levels.

Since their boys have been home from Camp Huron Lake, Rebecca and Jay Lowenfish have been racing around the area day in and day out trying to kill time until the day after Labor Day.  After letting their boys decompress from camp by playing a three day marathon of video games, they have been to the movies three times, bowling twice, and have made more than a handful of trips to Staples and Target to amass a stockade of school supplies.  Still, the time seems to be creeping by slower than a turtle crawling through molasses.

“We went to see a movie, took the kids to lunch then went to the mall to buy them sneakers for school.  I look at my watch and it’s only 12:15,” lamented Rebecca, 46.  “What the hell am I going to do with them for the next six hours until my husband gets home and I can hit the bottle of rosé?  I’m not going to SkyZone again…that’s for damn sure.”

While the seven weeks the children are away at camp seems to go by in the blink of an eye, the last three and a half weeks of the summer is a torturous death march to the sweet freedom when the yellow buses start rolling through the neighborhood.  Between badgering the kids to finish their summer homework packet and/or reading list and imploring them to get out of the basement to get some fresh air, parents are longing for the days of carpools and homework just to get those seven wonderfully refreshing alone adult hours that coincide with the school day.

The Lowenfishes are planning on surprising the boys next week by forcing them to play Fortnite in the basement until the school bus arrives next Tuesday morning.  “It’s a win-win for everyone,” commented Jay as he took a sip of his third pre-dinner martini.