So you know how you’re supposed to start your kids going to bed early a week before school starts so they're prepared for the shock of the early schedule? We don’t do that. In fact, on Labor Day weekend, our kids typically stay up later than almost any other time during the summer, and they start school absolutely ragged. Their teachers would throw up their hands if they knew.

Here’s the thing: every year we get together with a group of friends, originally mine, some of whom date back to my high school years, one of whom goes all the way back to my toddlerhood, and it's just so fun to see everyone. Each year is different. The group waxes and wanes, sometimes large, sometimes small, some folks traveling from England or Hawaii, others from nearby Seattle. This year was smaller, the Seattle crowd only, but still there were six kids ranging in age from eight to fourteen, along with lots of good food and wine and conversation. The adults stayed up late talking while the kids either got wild with each other or slumped in a corner chair waiting for the powers that be to see the necessity of bedtime. (When your kids are begging to go to bed, you know you're a slacker parent.)

I feel a little guilty starting the school year this way—Leah would much prefer to stay home and put her already ordered things in a finer-tuned order. But the adults love it so much,  many of us try to make it every year.

On the upside, my kids come home from school each day ready for bed a little earlier. Tonight bath and shower time started at 7:30, no reminders from me whatsoever.

I figure the routine happens whether you start the week before school or with the first day. It’s all good.