I don’t know who needs to hear this, but we need a break. And I mean all of us.
My family has never been more desperate for spring break to arrive. We haven’t had a long weekend since February, and it’s showing. No one wants to get up in the mornings anymore—myself included. Adam, too. The alarms go off, and we all just groan at the ceiling like we’re part of some dramatic morning-themed soap opera.
The mood around our house? Cranky. The kids are done. D-O-N-E. They’re boycotting homework like it’s a moral stand. I’m honestly past the point of caring. If one more school email comes through asking me to check some portal, I’m going to fake a power outage and go off the grid.
And what are my big, relaxing spring break plans, you ask? Oh, just a 15-passenger van road trip to Wisconsin with six kids and a dog. Totally peaceful. Nothing says “recharge your soul” like eight hours a day of snack requests, spilled juice boxes, and someone crying because their sibling “breathed too loud.”
But it’s not all chaos. There’s a cabin waiting for me with a hot tub and a view of the Mississippi River. I will be enjoying that view with Adam’s hilarious family, pretending for at least 20 minutes that I’m not responsible for feeding anyone.
The rest of my plans? One word: sleep. I’m bringing my comfiest clothes and the world’s largest water bottle, and I plan to bed rot like it’s my job. Five glorious days of minimal productivity. And then, just like that, we’ll be back to counting down the days until summer break—where I’ll naturally begin counting down to back-to-school.
It’s a never-ending cycle of never stopping. So if you’re reading this, consider it permission to pause. Go rest. Hide from the to-do list. And good luck finding those eggs—especially the ones Adam has hidden. I have a bad feeling our kids will be finding them sometime in July.
Melissa Foust-McCoy is the managing editor of The Manning Times and East Main & More. A mother of four, she has called Clarendon County home on and off since 2009 and enjoys sharing her personal and family anecdotes through her writing.
