This past weekend, I chaperoned a choir trip to Disney World. Although the thought of warm weather was enticing, mine is not typically the first hand up when it comes to chaperone duties. I love kids, but I’m best at dealing with them one or two at a time. I’m the mom that doesn’t mind stuffing envelopes instead of doing playground duty or going to the pumpkin farm. Hide me in an office instead of on the bus with the kids. Truth be told, I’m not good with drama from other people’s kids.

But this was a different situation. It was a choir of all girls – 14 of them in all, including my daughter. They seemed like really nice kids, between the ages of 15 and 18. Then again, I’ll totally admit that I was cautiously optimistic at best. You never know with kids – especially girls. Will they be mean? Will they obsess over their hair? Will they fight with each other? Will they run around outside our hotel rooms all night long? Will they ostracize each other so that the quiet ones end up hanging with the chaperones?

Miracles of miracles, none of that happened. They were really nice. Sure, there were a few latecomers every day and I don’t even want to tell you how messy their hotel rooms became. (God bless the housekeeping service. They earned their paycheck this weekend.) But I have to say, this was the perfect trip to chaperone. There was virtually no drama.

You know what that means? The next trip I chaperone will be awful, just awful. I'm counting on it.

I realize that most of you have kids that are younger than mine, but it’s probably a safe bet that you also have school age children. Here’s what I think we have in common right now – your kids (and mine) have hit the Mid-Fall Brick Wall.

Here in our house, I’m dealing with a high school daughter. At the beginning of the school year she was (surprisingly) excited to go back to school. She said she missed being on a regular schedule and was anxious to get back and see her friends. She decorated her binders and made her annual vow to make the honor roll. Like all good things, I knew this wouldn’t last.

She’s into the performing arts and had committed to be in her school musical and two school choirs. Pretty quickly, rehearsals started happening fast and furious. And, because it’s high school, the homework increased too. Then, one of several bouts with the common cold started. The icing on the cake was the drop in temperatures and the onset of dark evenings.

Pretty soon, I think it was mid-October, I had to scrape her daily motivation and energy off the floor. Mornings started becoming a battle of wills and a struggle for both of us. A simple request of: “Mom, would you mind waking me up tomorrow morning?” soon turned into me begging, cajoling and bribing with a morning hot chocolate laced with a shot of coffee.

You think the Terrible Twos are bad? Try the Surly Sixteens. They’re not for the faint of heart.

I’m not sure what I expected motherhood to be like, but this is just another on a long list of things that I’m glad nobody warned me about. If I had known that my days would revolve around a mercurial adolescent, perhaps I would have chosen pets?

Right now, the school burnout level is at an all-time high. I’m getting information on a need-to-know basis (barely), the tension level is all over the place and my maternal mojo is way out of whack. I long for those days when a hug and a juice box would fix everything.

How about you? Are your kids losing their beginning of the school year excitement and enthusiasm? Is everyone getting a little cranky at this time of the year?