What’s Worse for a Working Parent? September or May?

Katherine Goldstein’s naming of “May-hem” in her newsletter this week is spot on. Her Double Shift newsletter is always great but this one hit close to home.

With multiple kids in school – in my case, three kids in three different schools – the year-end festivities are wonderful but leave little time for anything but work and event-going. When my working wife and I look at our calendars it’s a sea of pink – our color for family events – on all different days and times.

There are the school concerts, fields days and volunteer opportunities. (Recurring complaint: PTA people ask for volunteers earlier unless the object is to ramp up the guilt on working parents who might have something on their calendar tomorrow at 10:15am!)

And then this week, I overheard fellow Dads discussing the 3rd grade baseball championship schedule and was pretty glad none of my kids have gone down that route.

What do you think is more hectic? The August/September start or the May/June end of school? (My vote is for the start – since it’s a shock from the end of summer vacation.)