Border Banter with Benoit-Leipert: Back-to-school blues

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I don’t know about you, but my summer has flown by in what seems like the blink of an eye.

What happened to July? As soon as August hits, it’s time to start thinking about the dreaded back-toschool shopping.

In our house it’s simple at this point. My daughter is going into Grade 10, and my son into Grade 9. If their shoes fit (that’s a big IF), and their backpacks and Chromebooks are still in working order, they’re pretty much good to go.

Granted, any new clothes bought are much more expensive than back when they were small.

At least we don’t have to take the massive school supply checklists from store to store trying to find oddly specific things like large purple glue sticks, a single yellow duo tang folder, or pencils with a certain type of lead.

I feel for those parents who still have children in that phase. I remember years where that large list was not only time-consuming but expensive as well.

This year, with the inflated cost of literally everything, I can imagine there are some parents who are struggling to fill those backpacks.

The inflation rate hasn’t been this high in Canada since 1989, and it seems to be on an upward trend, along with interest rates of course. I’ll be keeping that in mind when election time comes around--hopefully sooner than later.

Here’s hoping the back-to-school blues don’t put too many young Canadian families into the red.