Illini Bluffs Strike

JUST LET THEM GO TO SCHOOL!!!!! Everyday I come home, physically and mentally exhausted from a hard day of school or clinical, knowing that I only have about one hour of time at home before I have to leave for the evening, knowing that that hour has to be spent working on stuff for the ICC/BU YG, to a monstrous mountain of the mess that comes as a result of leaving the kids home alone with absolutely no structured activity for the day! It’s maddening to enter the house with at least four bags of books, clothes, etc. pulling down my shoulders only to see that there is not a single clean surface to unload these burdens on. And, among the mess (you have to search a little to find them) three lazy children are sprawled out, comfortable and cozy as a peach in a tree a summer’s day, playing on their mind-numbing electronic devices as if time was only existent when it came to meals and when to partake in them. The worst part is: for them, time is non-existent! No one knows when the teachers will quit striking, so the kids are living as if in an everlasting summer! While I’m struggling to arrange millions of activities into my schedule literally down to the minutes! But, heaven forbid that I should have some “free-time” because that would mean I’m faced with the biggest job of all: getting the house back into a somewhat livable standard. And don’t even get me started on meal times! I use up my valuable time to put a decent meal on the table, and what do these kids do? Exactly what their piggish nature tells them to do: pour a bowl of cereal upon every hint of a rumbly tummy! There is no controlling the snacking that goes on in this house because no one is home to control it! In the moments that it is all almost too unbearable my mind begins to resort to a terrible habit as it tends to drift off to a happy time when none of them were home. Those marvelous days when I would clean the house spotless on Monday and by Friday, it would still be clean! And, oh the bliss of being able to prepare food for just two and know that it was actually appreciated!….but then reality crashes in. Someday, yes, someday the stupid teachers or school board, or who ever the bozos are that are responsible for this criminal act of stealing my sanity will pay. Maybe not with jail time, but deep down, they should have a looming sense of dread knowing that one day I will find them and it will not be pretty.