Paper

Monday of this week was the day that every kid in the nation started back to school.  I guess not exactly every kid, but from the pictures on my Facebook it appeared to be every last kid.  Of course my kids were in that group and started school on Monday as well.  (I was lazy and did not post their picture on Facebook so I will include a picture of what they looked like on Monday right here.)

With school comes paperwork.  Mounds and mounds of paperwork.  An ADD mom, with 2 ADD kids in school and a mountain of paperwork equals a mess, frustration, and an overwhelming feeling of inadequacy.

Luckily for me the usual paperwork sent home on the first day which includes health information and the need for you to write your name address and phone number 16 times is done online at our school district.  I still have to type my name at least 16 times per child, but it's so much better than the actual papers coming home.


My daughter is starting 4th grade and has a wonderful teacher who seems to believe in only sending home one piece of paper at a time for me to sign.  We can do that.  She is organized enough to bring home one piece of paper that the teacher asked her to put in her binder, I can sign it and it makes it back to school.  (He did send us home with a packet of papers to sign at meet the teacher night which I promptly lost and finally found in time for her to bring them in the second day of school.)

My son is starting high school.  They are not so understanding.  He has 8 different teachers who all want something signed.  No one is asking him to put the piece of paper neatly in a binder.  So this is how last night went.

Finally he dumped out his backpack (which still had stuff from a class he took over the summer in it) and found the piece of paper I had to sign.  But it was actually around 10 pieces of paper and he had them all nicely shoved into the front pocket of his backpack.  And in the process found a paper that outlined a project due tomorrow.

And then the papers start coming home from school.  All the drawings, test grades, handwriting samples and on and on.  And my children want everything kept.  I have to sneak while they are asleep to throw any schoolwork away, so it sits and get marinated on my counter for weeks.

Paper stresses me out.  Completely.  I constantly have a bunch of receipts in my purse.  Can't they just start emailing me that info.  Do I really need that piece of paper that says I bought something.  Can't someone make an app for all my receipts so I never have to actually touch the paper one?

Mail is another problem.  I get about 3 pieces of mail per week that I actually care about.  The rest goes straight to the trash.  But first it too must sit on my counter and marinate for a few days.  Then it is worthy of the trash can.

I'm drowning in paper and information overload.   And I know my kids are too.  I think I'll go find some chocolate.  I'm sure it will make everything all better.