Suppressing my Inner Geek – BTS Shopping Edition

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Seriously.

Okay, maybe it’s not as magical as Christmas, or as cozy as Thanksgiving, but there’s something to be said about back to school shopping and getting brand new school supplies.

Sure, I don’t like shopping with crowds (so absolutely grateful for the invention of the Internet and the creator of Amazon), I could write a whole post on how stressful the whole shopping, driving, and parking situation can be. Not to mention having to find the exact thing that’s on the school list. (Not just glue stick, but “glue stick (permanent).” What does that even mean? They have extra-strength, non-wrinkle, and crazy glue…. No. I’m not sending my 11-year old son to school with crazy glue. But I’m curious as to what might happen should he actually use permanent glue…. I’d better add some quick remedies to my Pinterest Board: Life with Boys.)

As the Lord would have it this morning though, there was hardly any traffic on our road trip to Walmart. (And I’ll just add that any drive on Oahu that takes longer than 20 minutes, or farther than 7 miles is considered a “road trip” in my book.) So our mission was already off to a great start. And, Why? you ask as to why I’m shopping in the middle of summer. Well, I hoped to beat the crowds of last minute shoppers by making the trek a couple of weeks early. You see, for some reason school starts on Aug 2nd this year for ALL THREE of my kiddos. Yep, you heard right. I’ve been handed three sacred BTS school supply scrolls this year, as my little one eagerly awaits the start of Kindergarten! Thankfully, I have said 11-year old son to help me get the goods this year (aka Cart Pusher).

When we arrived at the big box, I instinctively moseyed on over to their seasonal sale section and despite some areas looking bare and others looking like mini-hurricanes hit, I was in school supply heaven! Planners, folders, organizers, colored gel pens, notebooks, index cards, binder clips – Seriously. Complete internal geek out. And I had to keep it “internal” in my cool mom attempt to not embarrass my tween son.

In my years before kids, I would take full advantage of back to school sales and stock up on a gazillion cool things that I really didn’t need. Or bought things in an attempt to get organized, which – well, let’s face it – never happened. But now, shopping for kids equals mommy sacrifices. Shiny new pen sets have given way to Crayola broad tip classic markers (don’t get the “bold” colors!). Desktop calendars have been replaced by blunt tip 5-inch Fiskar scissors. And new, smooth spiral notebooks perfect for journaling those random thoughts have bowed out to college ruled composition books. Honestly, it’s not quite the same when you’re not shopping for yourself.

But something cool happened this year. As I allowed my soon to be sixth grader to pick out his choice of mechanical pencils, I saw a familiar twinkle in his eye. Wait. Could it be? Is he actually geeking out over his Pentel 2-pack? “Look, mom. It’s got the extra lead and erasers, and ooh, look, a pen too!”  I paused for a second before realizing that I had downplay it. If I seemed even the slightest overly excited about this, then BTS shopping would totally lose its cool.

“Wow, Bud. That’s neat that they put that all in there together for you. That makes it easy. You sure you want these colors?”

“Yeah. They would look so cool with my new zip up binder. Oh, can I get one of these planners too?” holding up a pocket sized 2016-17 student planner. Yes, my son. You can get one. While we’re at it, I’ll slip one in for myself as well.

Be still my heart as I unleash this silent mom-geek cheer heard around the world.

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