Spring break. Two words that used to mean sleeping in and freedom and maybe a road trip somewhere. Now they mean ten days of a teenager looking at me every morning like I am her personal social director.
She came to me on a Tuesday, iPad in hand, with a list. An actual written list. Places she wanted to go, things she wanted to do, restaurants she wanted to try. Bless her heart — she was prepared. I looked at the list. I looked at my calendar. I looked back at the list.
I said: 'Baby, this is spring break. Not The Amazing Race.'
She looked at me with the specific patience of a person who has accepted that her mother is vintage and cannot be upgraded. 'Mom. You have been saying for months that we need to do more stuff together.' She was not wrong. I said it at the kitchen table. I said it after church. I said it at 2 AM when I was feeling sentimental.
Here is what nobody tells you about spring break when you are a geriatric teen mom: you have the will, but the body has started having opinions. My will says: make memories, be present, GO. My knees say: perhaps not the trampoline park. My lower back says: can we keep the driving under two hours. My feet have been filing formal paperwork against me since 2022.
So we negotiated. 'I'll do the thing you want Tuesday if we can do the quiet thing I need Thursday.' 'We go out two days, but we also have one full day at home with zero obligations.' 'The schedule is a suggestion and the suggestion includes nap time.'
She agreed. We had an actual handshake agreement about spring break nap time and I need you to sit with that.
Here is what I have learned: you will not do everything on the list. That is fine. The things you actually do will be better because they were chosen intentionally. And the day you stay home in pajamas eating things you shouldn't — that will be the day she remembers. Not the Instagram-ready outing. The couch day. The real one.
Plan for it anyway. Have snacks. Have grace. Have your Café Bustelo ready.
Buckle up, buttercup. Spring break is coming and it will be exactly what you make of it.