What our kids and their teachers taught us this school year

Another school year in the books. Hallelujah! (This is the time parents everywhere are praising whatever higher power they believe in).

Your kids did it, parents! And so did you — because we all know that even in middle school and high school (but hopefully not by college) you are doing some serious pushing kids toward the finish line.

Each school year, my kids always learn a lot, but they, and their teachers also teach me a lot.

Here’s what I learned this year — their eighth-grade and 11th-grade years:

■ Even kids that seem to be really confident are very awkward and self-conscious at these ages.

■ They have to want to succeed. You can’t make them succeed, which is really, really hard.

■ It’s really hard to watch them stumble, but you have to let them and hope that it’s not something that has lasting consequences.

■ Middle-school friendships and romances have more twist and turns in them than any TV soap opera. Just when you think you’ve figured out all the alliances, you’re wrong, Mom.

■ I used to worry that my kids would never ever be dating. Now I’m worried that my kid is dating too much. Even late-bloomers blossom.

■ Kids are never going to be who you think they are. They are always surprising us with how their likes and dislikes can change so quickly.

■ Life-skills are hard to come by. We’re having to work at these. Laundry? Check. Driving? Not yet. Cooking? Dear God.

■ Some teachers really get your kids. Some teachers desperately want to but just don’t. Others don’t even try. The good ones help us all get through the school year.

■ Good teachers will meet your child where he’s at and take him farther than he ever thought he could go and make it fun, interesting and exciting.

■ No one’s kid is perfect. Even that kid who is on every A-team of sports and has all A’s and has no pimples. Even they have something they are struggling with. Don’t believe the Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc.

■ Every kid should get to take an off-the-wall kind of class for fun.

■ All kids are bullied. All kids have been bullies in some way. Kids can be terrible people.

■ Just when you think your kid has become hardened by school, they do something completely empathetic and go out of their way to help someone else.

■ Every kid has that thing that lights a fire under them. You just never know when and how it will happen.

■ We sweat so much of the small stuff every day… when really, that homework assignment didn’t matter as much as we thought it did.

■ My kids learn so much more than will ever be on any standardized test they will take. The good stuff stays with them and is the leastlikely-to-be-on-a-standardized-test kind of information.

■ Before kids could text, how did we ever know when and where they were going to be after school? Plans can change from one minute to the next. You just have to keep up, Mom.

■ You can make yourself crazy looking at the online grading system. Kids can go from F to A in 10 seconds flat.

■ No matter how stocked up you think you are on school supplies, your kids always need the one thing you are out of, and they needed it at 9 p.m. for the next day.

■ Every day requires some serious deep breaths.

■ Every day requires some serious standing over beds and telling people that they actually have to leave these beds.

■ Every day requires some sort of reminder to go to bed at the end of the day.

■ The school year is a rat race that never seems like it will end, and then it’s over, and you get nostalgic about it. They will never be in that grade again. (Cue the tears.)

■ That backpack that they brought home is disgusting. It probably has crumbs from September in it. It might just need to go in the trash, but, of course, it probably will sit wherever it is that they left it until August.

Have a fabulous summer vacation! You’ve earned it, parents.