Thursday, August 20, 2009

How Do You Feel About the End of Summer?

I got an email yesterday that mentioned this end of summer poll for moms. It caught my attention because one of the questions asks how you feel about the kids going back to school - will you miss them or are you excitedly dancing a jig and celebrating the arrival of that yellow bus? As good moms we should all miss the kids terribly when they go back to school, right? Maybe not - because currently 66% of the moms who have voted say they are more than ready for those kids to go back to school.

In all honesty, these polls leave a lot to be desired. Yes, they're fun, but oftentimes our feelings fall somewhere in the middle. Yes, I'll miss my handsome son when he goes back to school (September 1st), but I'm also glad it's about time for school to start again. And I know I feel differently about it now that he's 17 than I did when the kids were little. Back then I was sometimes ready for them to go back to school about a week after school let out for the summer, or about the time the "I'm bored. There's nothing to do." whining started. We also had a lot of fun over the summer going to the beach, roller blading, watching movies, etc.

Where's the in-between choice? The one that says I have mixed feelings, and it all depends on the day, the time of day, and whether or not he helped around the house when I asked him to, or some other such thing. The same goes for some of the other questions - School shopping: 'have to cut back this year' or 'Yay! another reason to shop'? For me, personally I am never looking for another reason to shop, but I'm also not feeling like I have to cut back this year. I need a 'same as always' choice. There are also questions about summer food, summer clothes, and summer weather, and I have mixed feelings about all of them. Maybe this just says something about me?

Image representing Gather as depicted in Crunc...Image via CrunchBase

I'll still probably still vote on all the questions and then join in the discussion where I can state how I really feel - because it sounds like fun, and also because 25 participants will each receive 25 Gather Points. Here's where I admit that I signed up for Gather ages ago, but I haven't used it much. I didn't even realize there was such a thing as Gather Points until recently, but now that I know, I'm going to have to figure out how to earn some more of them. The Gather site says:
Create great experiences for others to increase what you earn. The more quality content you share and the more interaction you have with others, the more points you'll earn. Maximize your earnings by creating consistent, popular experiences and conversations for the rest of the community and by promoting them to people who share your interests outside of Gather.

So, share more content on Gather and earn more points. Points can be cashed in for gift cards from places like Amazon.com, Starbucks, Target, The Gap, and Home Depot, and can even be paid in cash through PayPal. I think I've been missing out by letting my Gather account sit unused! How about you? Do you have a Gather account? Have you been using it and earning lots of Gather Points?

Feel free to run on over to vote and join the discussion on Gather and/or leave your comments here about how you feel about the end of summer. How in the world can it be over already? is a legitimate answer here.
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