By BETSY HART, Scripps Howard News Service

The end of summer and back to the school routine has meant a little back to basics for me. Or rather, a little back to work basics with my kids. Summer travel and upending of routines meant we'd gotten out of practice -- way out of practice -- with doing the most basic of chores.

School is back in session. Beware of Hula Hoops.Seriously.A good friend of mine recently shared with me that she witnessed her (Midwest) suburban elementary school have its teachers gather their students in each grade to explain to them, as they sat cross-legged on the playground on their first day of school, the dangers of that 1950s icon, the Hula Hoop.

So, I'm always writing about not being afraid to let our kids experience adversity. This past weekend I had a chance to practice what I preach with my 12-year-old daughter.I would have preferred a root canal.

Oh, how I remember all those wonderful children I was going to have.The perfect children who wouldn't talk back to me, ever have a bad attitude, fight with their siblings, the ones who wouldn't disobey.

It still is summer. Really.Every year in mid-August, with the Halloween decorations already calling to me from every store I enter, I have the same reaction. Don't shorten my summer!

We parents on average spend five times more on our kids today than we did 25 year ago, and that's in real dollars. So David Briggs, head of the Good Sense Financial Stewardships Ministry at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill., told me.

"S.G." writes to Carolyn Hax, a nationally syndicated advice columnist, that she's almost 50 years old and has been dating a wonderful man for three years. Though they maintain separate households, their lives are otherwise intertwined: seeing each other all the time, maintaining mutual calendars, joining in each other's family celebrations, kids' events and so on.

"Hello Muddah! Hello Faddah!

I never thought in terms of "bringing up geeks." But for much of my young life, I was a geek. Full disclosure: while other girls in junior high school had pictures of Leif Garrett in their lockers, I had pictures of Ronald Reagan. It's hard to get ahead socially in such a case, but so it was.

I'm always curious when I find incredibly well educated, credentialed people, very often women, who think that women are really stupid.So I marveled as I read this week's New York Times cover story,