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Mom's hilarious rant: 'What's the point of the end-of-the-year half day?'

"This ain't no Mother's Day Out."
/ Source: TODAY Contributor

As the school year winds down, parents across the country are finding themselves victim of the particularly cruel invention that is the end-of-the-school-year "half day."

Because of the final exam schedules for middle and high school students, the last several days of school are shortened to only three or four hours for much of the country's schools. With tests complete and grades set, many elementary school students — unlike older students — often spend those short days before summer vacation having class parties, pajama and movie days, and playing games.

Popular blogger Susannah B. Lewis, also known as Whoa Susannah, has had enough of this half-day nonsense, and she's not alone. In a Facebook video, the mother of two from Jackson, Tennessee, asks the question moms everywhere have been asking for years: What is the point of the end-of-year half day?

"That just means I 'half' to get up at 6:30, drag these kids out of bed, send them to school for three hours to get hyped up on sugar, high fructose corn syrup, Pixie Stix, and doughnuts and cupcakes, and then I 'half' to go get them before the sugar high has even worn off," she rants. "I have to go get 'em, and they get in the car like dope fiends, like crazy nuts, hyped up on sugar for three and a half hours.

"This is not Mother's Day Out, where we just go drop them off for a few hours. No, no, no, no, no!"

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Lewis told TODAY Parents she thinks half days are "asinine," and not just for parents. "These poor teachers don't want to put in three more hours for another hand print craft or to watch the movie 'Babe' again," she said.

Lewis said all she has time to do in the three hours her kids are at school on half days is to run to the grocery store to "stock up on Lunchables." She's looking forward to the whole ordeal being over. "I love summer," she said. "I'm looking forward to late mornings, late nights, and no schedule or homework!"

Lewis's rant did not go unnoticed by her children's teachers, she said. After her video went viral, her son Bennett's first grade teacher sent her a picture of her son. In it, he's holding three jumbo-sized Pixie Stix with a big smile on his face.

"I thought about asking her to take him home with her until June," said Lewis.

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This story was originally published in 2017.