Well, it's that time of year again! It just now hit me with full-force that tomorrow is my daughter's last day of school for the year. Yikes!

When you have younger kids, this can be really fun. You look forward to summer camps,  long days at the pool, and picnics, etc. But since my daughter is seventeen, I have to admit that I look forward to this time with aprehension. Summers during the teenage years have followed a typical pattern in our household:

Week #1- mom, I can't clean my room or walk the dog or do anything but veg in front of the TV because I have to decompress from my long, grueling schoolyear of study.

Week #2- After I remind my daughter that the freebie week is over, basically nothing changes. I am still stepping over piles of clothing and trying desperately to contain the mess to her bedroom.

Week# 3- When I make the suggestion that she might want to finally clean out her backpack and take a gander at the long summer reading list she was assigned, I get some long-winded explanation of why she just doesn't have the time right now. Then my personal understanding of time is questioned (don't I know that the whole summer still lies ahead of us?) Why should we try to get a jump on things this early?

Week#4-Generally, it's time to be thinking about the best place to hang out with friends for the Fourth of July. With all of that pressure, the last thing we should worry about is homework or housework.

Week#5- I haven't seen my car or my daughter in weeks. If I want to go someplace, it'll have to be before teenage sunrise (at noon).

Week #6 - I give up trying to bulldoze her room and decide that she can wash her own clothes (provided they ever make it from the floor to the laundry room). As a result, she starts wearing her bathing suit everywhere which is automatically washed every time she goes to the pool so it's always clean (albeit a tad moldy if chucked in a corner). I add that she might just want to start showering in her clothes if she's going to use that logic. She rolls her eyes at me.

Week #7- Summer crush week. Some boy from the pool, or  the Fourth of July party has finally asked her out. The entire week is devoted to text messaging and updating her facebook page to read "in a relationship."

Week #8- Reconnecting with school friends who haven't been seen in 8 long weeks. No time for anything else between that and the boyfriend from week #7

Week #9- I begin staring longingly at the calendar for hours on end and counting the days until school is back in session.

Week#10- The "Mom, I don't have anything to wear when school starts again" week (no kidding, her entire wardrobe is dirty and on the floor). When I try to point this out I am reminded of how insensitive I am to the overwhelming demands of teenage life.

Week# 11- I can see the light at the end of the tunnel

Week#12- It's the final hurrah of summer. You have to make the most of your relaxation time before it's gone, Mom--duh.

24 hours til first day of school- "Mom, where did you put my summer reading list?"