Ahh yes, another summer has arrived.
Ahh yes, how do we keep the kids off electronics and actually parent them?
You see parents all the time boasting about their planned activities and endless summer camps. Kids huddled around the kitchen table doing paper mache like little angels, with the parents planning activities like they work in the school district.
And then there’s the rest of us. Trying to balance work and parenting like Chris Farley and Kate Moss on a teeter totter….we simply can’t do it. (funny visual there)
I came home from work last night and heard my boys laughing and hollering like they were trying to get the HOA called on them. As I went into the backyard, they had concocted a makeshift slip and slide with tarps they bought at the dollar store with my mom, duck tape to hold them together, a hose interwoven on a soccer rebounder to provide a trickle of water, and a gigantic blowup mattress to slide on.
The sight of it was ridiculous, but the sound coming from them was addicting. A combination of pride, excitement, and..well..the sounds a 9 and 7 year old should be making instead of the irritation and tone that comes from their eyes fixated on Fortnite for endless hours.
As parents, we try to provide our kids with everything they need to keep them out of our hair so we can work. We plan vacations to alleviate that guilt and bond with them, but it’s the day to day we struggle with. We plan camps, we give them suggestions for idle time, and we get back to our responsibilities hoping they figure it out.
My kids had 3 hours of fun on 4 dollars, and most importantly, they used their minds to figure out how to have that fun. Yes, the sights and cleanup are obnoxious sometimes, but then again, so is summer break. Let your children come up with what they do..you know, like we had to do. Stop stressing about what you need to plan. Balance that with the occasional summer camp, and that teeter totter may just do what it was made to do.
All my best as you figure out life and the relationships in it
XOXO Glenn
