Summer Through the Looking-Glass: The Unlazy Days of Summer

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My Summer breaks as a child consisted of day after day swimming at the local pool.  My childhood Summer evenings were spent playing games like ghosts in the graveyard or catching lightening bugs in saved jelly jars with perforated lids.  Each Summer break would feature a 10 day road trip to somewhere new, a trip to the zoo, a movie on a rainy day, a lemonade stand, a few backyard cookouts, a sleepover, and a couple bike rides.

In those days, kids weren't expected to make good use of their Summers.  Lazy days spent just hanging out and having fun were the norm.  They were casual Summers with a dosage or two of "wonder" sprinkled on top.


It seems that as I grew up, Summer matured as well.  Many of today's youth feel a need to utilize their Summer to the fullest, us parents too.  My kids and I rush around a bit more like the White Rabbit ("I'm late! I'm late! For a very important date! No time to say hello, goodbye! I'm late! I'm late! I'm late!") from Alice in Wonderland than the adventurous and curious Alice herself.

Summer hasn't even started and I'm struggling to find time on our "mad" calendar for a road trip and a couple backyard cookouts in between the required captains practices for football, ACT prep classes, swim lessons, a birthday party for the twins, and youth sports camps the kids consider a "must".  And when I do schedule our family road trip, it will be doubling as college visits for our oldest son.  Our Summer appears to largely be about scrambling to "catch up" while navigating to stay clear of falling down the rabbit hole. Or perhaps we need to fall inside?

It's a fine line I walk as a mom of 5.  On one hand I feel it's my duty to encourage all of my kids to take advantage of the extra time they have in the summer months to hone a skill or prep for the year ahead.  On the other hand, I need to keep the entire summer from becoming one very long working weekend.  They are still kids and I'm determined to make sure they still get some of those classic summer moments in the mix.  Does it really count as Summer if it's devoid of even one impromptu run through the sprinklers?

Let's just hope this parental obligation to balance the Summer madness for my kids doesn't result in me screaming "off with their heads" by Midsummer's Eve.